GIFT   OF 
MICHAEL  REE^E 


4*^* 


•o* 


gWi 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/costoflivingasmoOOricliricli 


WORKS   OF  ELLEN   H.  RICHARDS 

PUBLISHED     BY 

JOHN  WILEY  &  SONS 

43-45    EAST    I9TH   ST.,    NEW   YORK. 

The  Cost  ofLiving  as  Modified  by  Sanitary  Science. 

By    Ellen    H.    Richards,    Instructor    in    Sanitary 
Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology.    i2mo.     124  pages.     Cloth.     $1.00. 
Air,  Water,  and  Food  ;  Prom  a  Sanitary  Standpoint. 

By  Ellen  H.  Richards,  with  the  assistance  of 
Alpheus  G.  Woodman,  Instructors  in  Sanitary 
Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology. 8vo.    230  pages.     Cloth.     $2.00. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

HOME  SCIENCE  PUBLISHING  CO., 

485  TREMONT  STREET,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

The  Chemistry  of  Cooking:  and  Cleaning. 

By  Ellen  H.  Richards  and  S.  Maria  Elliott. 
Cloth.     158  pages.     Price  $1.00. 

Pood  Materials  and  their  Adulterations. 

By  Ellen  H.  Richards.  Cloth.  iBj  pages.  Price 
$1.00. 

Home  Sanitation. 

Revised  Edition.  Edited  by  Ellen  H.  Richards 
and  Marion  Talbot.    Paper.    85  pages.     Price  25c 

Plain  Words  about  Pood. 

Edited  by  Ellen  H.  Richards.  The  Rumford  Leaf- 
lets.    Illustrated.     Cloth.    176  pages.     Price  $1.00. 


THE  COST  OF  LIVING 


AS    MODIFIED    BY 


SANITARY  SCIENCE. 


BY 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS, 

Instructor  in  Sanitary  Chemistry 
in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  T'chnology. 


SECOND    EDITION',  ENLARGED. 
FIRST  THOUSAND. 


NEW  YORK: 

JOHN    WILEY    &    SONS. 

London  :   CHAPMAN  &  HALL,  Limited. 

1900. 


^^^' 

'<\^ 


Copyright,  1899, 

BY 

ELLEN  H.   RICHARDS. 


ROBERT  DRUMMOND,    PRINTER,    NEW   YORK. 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

While  appreciating  the  many  kind  words  vouch- 
safed by  the  reviews  in  regard  to  this  little  book,  the 
author  began  to  feel  somewhat  disheartened  as  to  the 
chief  purpose  of  the  work.  The  broad  view  of  sanitary 
science,  that  it  means  a  knowledge  of  all  that  physical 
and  mental  environment  which  leads  to  the  highest 
utilization  of  man's  powers  for  the  progress  of  civiliza^ 
tion,  and  not  a  mere  study  of  germ  diseases,  seems  to 
be  lacking  even  in  the  educational  world. 

It  was  especially  gratifying,  therefore,  to  find  that 
the  meaning  was  not  so  blindly  expressed  but  that  it 
could  be  read,  and  the  author  desires  to  thank  the 
unknown  critic  who  so  clearly  expressed  the  purpose 
of  the  discussion  that  the  quotation  is  here  given  in 
full. 

"The  'Cost  of  Living'  represents  a  departure  from 
former  methods  oi  teaching  hygiene.  The  teaching  of 
hygiene  as  a  natural  science  has  not  accomplished 
what  was  prophesied  for  it  two  decades  since.  The 
sanitarian  is  beginning  now  to  treat  hygiene  as  one 
phase  of  a  social  science.  To  that  end  the  author  of 
the  book  under  discussion  presents  nine  lectures  on 
domestic  economy.  Starting  with  the  assumption 
that  half  our  income  is  wasted,   or,  in   other  words, 

iif 

QOOUQ 


IV  PREFACE   TO   THE   SECOND    EDITION. 

that  present  incomes  go  only  half  as  far  as  they 
might,  the  author  concludes  that  reform  may  be 
effected  through  improvement  in  consumption  as  well 
as  through  an  increased  share  in  the  results  of  pro- 
duction. In  fact,  permanent  improvements  in  the 
standard  of  life  depend  rather  upon  wise  spending 
than  upon  large  earnings. 

**  Sanitary  Science  furnishes  the  criterion  of  wise  ex- 
penditure in  the  selection  of  a  diet,  of  a  building  site, 
and  household  furnishings.  The  lectures  go  further 
and  suggest  model  budgets  for  the  households  depen- 
dent upon  modest  incomes.  Many  economies  are 
discussed  whereby  the  small  incomes  may  be  made  to 
raise  materially  the  standard  of  life,  without  sub- 
tracting any  real  or  supposed  essentials  in  the  exist- 
ing standard."  (Annals  of  the  Am.  Acad.,  May  1900, 
p.  448.) 

In  regard  to  the  Division  of  the  Incortie  necessary 
or  best  adapted  to  produce  the  desired  result,  not  until 
more  actual  budgets  from  different  parts  of  the  country 
and  from  families  living  under  a  variety  of  conditions 
are  received  can  general  laws  be  deduced.  From  the 
young  people  who  have  numbered  this  little  book 
among  their  wedding  presents,  and-  from  those  who 
have  started  housekeeping  with  its  suggestions  in  mind, 
will  come  the  most  valuable  criticisms. 

The  author  will  be  grateful  for  these  and  for  any 
suggestions  which  will  help,  those  who  are  finding 
more  and  more  difficult  the  struggle  for  a  civilized 
life. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAGE 

Standards  of  Living i 

CHAPTER    II. 
f 
The   Service  of    Sanitary    Science    in   Increasing    Pro- 
ductive Life i6 

CHAPTER    III. 

Household     Expenditure.      Division     between     Depart- 
ments according  to  Ideals 28 

CHAPTER    IV. 
The  House.     Rent  or  Value  and  Furnishing 40    • 

CHAPTER    V. 
Operating  Expenses:     Fuel,  Light,  Wages 50 

CHAPTER   VI. 
Food 65 

CHAPTER   VII. 
Clothing  in  Relation  to  Health 82 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
The  Emotional  and  Intellectual  Life 89 

CHAPTER    IX. 
The  Organization  of  the  Houshold 100-^ 


THE  COST  OF  LIVING 

AS  MODIFIED   BY   SANITARY  SCIENCE. 


CHAPTER    I. 
STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  ^ 

"Apart  from  religion,  the  end  of  man  is  to  secure  a  plenty 
of  the  good  things  of  this  world,  with  life,  health,  and  peace  to 
enjoy  them." — John  Locke,  1690. 

"Education  is  that  organizing  of  resources  in  the  htiman 
being,  of  powers  and  conduct,  which  shall  fit  him  to  his  social 
and  physical  world." — William  James,  1899. 

In  these  days  of  consolidation  for  the  purpose  of 
cutting  down  expenses,  days  of  close  calculation  of 
cost,  when  everything  is  reduced  to  a  money  basis  in 
production,  it  is  not  surprising  that  discussion  should 
have  arisen  over  the  great  waste  involved  in  the 
keeping  up  of  fifty  kitchen-fires  to  do  the  work  that 
five  would  do;  in  the  time  given  to  the  marketing 
for  one  family  which  might  serve  for  fifty.  Many 
students  of  social  questions  have  predicted  the 
speedy  appearance  of  a  housekeeping  trust,  by  which 


2  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

living  is  to  be  made  more  economical  and  less  bur- 
densome. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  for  economy  the 
home  of  the  well-to-do  cannot  at  present  compete 
with  the  best-managed  hotels  and  boarding-houses. 
It  is  worth  while  to  examine  the  causes  for  this  state 
of  things  and  to  be  prepared  to  accept  such  modifica- 
tions as  are  inevitable. 

In  the  first  place,  a  family  in  boarding  occupies 
one  half  or  one  third  the  space  it  would  require  in  a 
house  of  its  own.      That  means  less  rent. 

In  the  second  place,  most  persons  will  put  up  with 
less  service  in  such  quarters  than  they  would  expect 
at  home. 

In  the  third  place,  the  cost  of  the  food,  its  prep- 
aration and  serving,  is  far  less  per  person  than  in  a 
small  family. 

In  the  fourth  place,  the  economy  of  time  in  having 
most  of  the  details  of  the  daily  routine  cared  for 
without  personal  oversight  and  direction  reconciles 
many  persons  to  the  hotel  and  boarding-house  life.* 

While  we  acknowledge  the  attractive  side  of  the 
care-free  condition  of  the  members  of  the  ''  Home 
trust,**  I  think  we  also  look  forward  with  a  secret 
dread  to  the  time  when  we  may  realize  a  Bellamy 
dining-room  or  a  Wells  nursery. 

It  is  with  the  intention  of  starting  a  discussion  of 
certain    questions    by   the   intelligent   young    people 


STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  3 

just  about  to  begin  life  on  fifteen  hundred  to  three 
thousand  dollars  a  year  that  these  pages  have  been 
written. 

Much  investigation  has  been  made  of  cost  of  exist- 
ence of  those  who  earn  four  hundred  to  five  hundred 
dollars  a  year,  and  many  accounts  have  been  given 
of  those  who  spend  ten  thousand  to  fifty  thousand 
dollars  a  year  on  the  family  living,  but  the  majority 
of  the  most  intelligent  American  families,  students, 
professors,  business  men,  and  professional  men,  are 
obliged  to  do  the  best  they  can  on  from  two  thou- 
sand to  five  thousand  dollars  a  year.  It  is  from  this 
class  that  we  may  most  confidently  expect  a  great 
advance  in  the  next  generation  in  a  knowledge  of 
how  to  make  the  best  use  of  life  and  how  to  get  the 
greatest  pleasure  from  the  money  expended. 

The  discussions  which  have  called  public  attention 
to  the  status  of  housekeeping  have  assumed  the 
problem  to  be  one  of  ecoitomics^  brought  about  by 
the  industrial  situation,  and  have  looked  for  the  solu- 
tion along  purely  material  lines.  This  is  to  consider 
the  human  being  as  a  machine,  as  a  passive  object  of 
revolutionary  action,  without  power  to  direct  his  own 
destiny. 

It' has  been  said:  *' Natural  progress  and  physical 
cind  intellectual  advancement  are  not  the  whole  of 
human  progress.  The  real  advancement  of  the  race 
is  to  be  promoted  by  the  cultivation  of  our  emotional 


4  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

and  aesthetic  nature,  and  altruism  must  replace 
egoism." 

While  granting  the  presence  of  the  economic  and 
industrial  factors,  the  author  holds  that  the  ethical 
discussion  must  precede  any  attempt  to  adjust  these 
factors  to  the  ideals  of  the  twentieth  century. 

Man  as  an  uplifting,  compelling  force  in  the  world 
does  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  in  all  ages  has  won 
his  place  by  the  ideals  he  has  placed  far  ahead  and 
above  him  and  for  which  he  has  valiantly  striven. 
The  man  without  a  conscious  aim  slowly  but  surely 
degenerates. 

The  Englishman's  house  is  not  only  his  castle,  it  is 
a  small  world  in  itself;  in  its  management  he  has 
learned  to  rule  larger  things:  and  it  is  conceded  by  so 
able  an  observer  as  Edmond  Demolin  that  this  is  the 
secret  of  Anglo-Saxon  superiority.  The  Englishman 
easily  leads  because  he  has  organizing  ability.  The 
young  boy  who  by  his  father's  death  becomes  the 
head  of  the  household,  develops  those  qualities  which 
afterward  show  in  statesmanship  or  in  generalship  or 
in  engineering  professions. 

When  these  daily  affairs  are  conducted  on  prin- 
ciple, the  experience  gained  in  this  small  world  of 
human  interests  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  larger 
world  of  charity  and  of  public  work. 

If  we  accept  the  conclusion  of  the  thoughtful 
students  of  human  evolution  and  assume  that  what  is 


STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  5  >( 

represented  by  the  term  ''home"  is  the  germ  of 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  the  unit  of  social  progress; 
that  no  community  rises  above  the  average  'of  its 
individual  homes  in  intelligence,  courage,  honesty, 
industry,  thrift,  patriotism,  or  any  other  individual 
or  civic  virtue;  that  the  home  is  the  nursery  of  the 
citizen;  that  nothing  which  church,  school,  or  state 
can  do  will  quite  make  up  for  the  lack  in  the  home, 
then  we  must  acknowledge  that  no  subject  cart  be  of 
greater  importance  than  a  discussion  of  the  standards 
involved  in  home  life. 

A  clever  writer  has  shown  how  often  the  family  is 
a  mere  unorganized  herd,  with  as  little  regard  for 
individual  rights,  for  privacy,  for  likes  and  dislikes, 
as  is  shown  by  any  crowd.  Whenever  this  is  the 
case  it  is  because  of  wrong  standards.  A  home 
means  a  place  that  one  can  call  one's  own,  into  which 
no  one  else  can  intrude.  Each  child,  each  member 
of  the  family  should  have  a  room,  or  at  least  a 
screened  corner  where  safety  from  interference  may 
be  counted  upon.  Even  a  chalk-line  on  the  floor 
contented  the  two  who  were  obliged  to  live  in  one 
room  in  the  old  ladies*  home.*  Quiet  hours  have  a 
great  influence  in  the  development  of  character.  A 
love  of  the  crowd  betrays  a  poverty  of  individual 
resources.  The  constant  presence  of  the  nurse  is, 
«     I 

*  "  Castles  in  Spain,"  by  Alice  Brown. 


6  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

after  a  certain  age,  bad  for  the  child ;  the  constant 
direction  to  do  this  or  that  stultifies  it. 

Independence  of  character,  personal  resourceful- 
,,  ness,  is  what  is  at  present  needed  in  the  social  world; 
it  is  what  the  evolution  of  the  past  three  or  four 
centuries  has  been  cultivating  in  the  development  of 
the  individual,  in  freeing  him  from  despotism  and 
tyranny,  but  it  has  been  done  within  the  home.  Is 
the  office  of  this  nursery  of  character  gone  ?  Do  we 
not  see  signs  of  decadence  in  strength  of  purpose,  in 
that  which  goes  to  make  for  the  best  citizenship  as 
the  power  of  the  home  wanes  ? 

Is  it  not  time  to  ask  ourselves  '*  What  is  life  for  ?  " 
**  What  is  the  office  of  the  home  ?  "  Is  not  the  pur- 
pose of  the  family  education  in  all  that  makes  for 
character,  for  citizenship;  are  not  all  the  qualities 
that  serve  the  highest  purposes  in  the  world  developed 
in  the  family  life  when  it  is  taken  seriously  ? 

We  admit  that  the  very  existence  of  the  individual 
home  cannot  be  justified  on  ordinary  economic 
grounds.  Trusts  and  combinations  have  wonderfully 
cheapened  the  common  articles  in  daily  use.  A 
nursery  trust  would  as  wonderfully  lessen  the  cost  of 
raising  children.  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells'^  has  given  us  a 
vivid  picture  of  such  a  nursery  where  one  maid  may 
replace  ten. 

_*"  When  the  Sleeper  Wakes.** 


STANDARD^^v^  UVINa.    >'  J^ 

The  same  economic  tendency  is  going  on  in  the 
public  schools.  They  are  doing  by  the  wholesale 
much  of  what  the  home  did  individually  fifty  years 
ago,  and  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  on  the  surface 
they  are  doing  it  more  cheaply  because  large  classes 
are  taught  at  once,  but  there  is  less  opportunity  for 
individual  development,  and  if  this  tendency  is  to 
increase  and  finally  all  men  are  to  be  placed  on 
one  level  with  no  special  individuality,  where  are  the 
leaders  of  the  next  century  to  come  from  ? 

The  school  has  its  place  as  a  corrective  of  the 
deficiencies  of  the  home.  At  any  given  time  the 
leaders  of  education  should  be  able  to  foresee  the 
needs  of  the  future  citizen,  and  by  the  school  training 
to  influence  quickly  a  whole  generation.  It  is  this 
ready  adaptability  to  changing  conditions  which 
makes  the  school  such  a  potent  factor  whenever  it  is 
allowed  to  use  its  preventive  power  in  **  doing  away 
with  the  inconvenience  of  ignorance,"  as  John  Eliot 
expressed  it.  Conservatism  has  always  opposed,  and 
is  to-day  opposing,  the  economic  tendencies  of  the 
school.  The  early  struggle  came  in  1817,  when  it 
was  proposed  to  teach  reading  in  the  school  instead 
of  requiring  it  for  admission.  Each  new  departure 
has  been  fought  on  the  same  ground — that  training  of 
all  but  the  purely  intellectual  faculties  was  the  busi- 
ness of  the  home,  and  that  the  school  was  usurping 
its  duties.     The  same  battle  is  now  going  on  over  the 


8  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

still  more  evident  home  occupations,  cooking  and 
sewing,  but,  as  in  1817,  when  reading  was  not  taught 
in  the  home,  so  now  when  cooking  and  sewing  are 
not  taught  by  the  mother,  the  school  must  prepare 
the  next  generation  to  bring  these  arts*  back  or  to 
teach  it  the  means  of  doing  without  them. 

The  union  of  several  persons  in  a  group  having  a 
common  end,  the  welfare  of  the  family,  leads  to  a 
consideration  of  others,  to  suppression  of  gross  selfish- 
ness, and  offers  a  stimulus  to  that  industry  which  will 
advance  the  common  interest.  Human  life  is  so 
short  and  human  endeavor  so  weak  that  the  incentive 
to  provide  for  his  own  personal  future  would  not  be 
sufficient  to  urge  to  the  full  capacity  any  man's 
power.  For  his  child,  his  grandchild,  he  will  strive 
and  thus  gain  the  reward  that  comes  with  striving; 
for  it  is  not  the  possession  of  a  given  thing  which 
yields  the  most  satisfaction;  it  is  the  contest  which 
precedes  possession. 

Our  premises  are,  then,  that  the  individual  family 
group  must  be  maintained,  but  in  a  manner  consistent 
with  modern  progress.  It  is  the  ideal  which  is  to  be 
preserved,  not  the  mere  shell. 

At  first  sight  what  could  be  more  unlike  the 
dainty,  gauze  winged  butterfly,  dancing  at  will  in  the 
sunlight,  than  the  slow-creeping,  clumsy  and  often 
repulsive  caterpillar  or  the  hard-shelled  chrysalis 
buried  in  the  ground  or  idly  swinging  from  a  twig  ? 


STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  9 

And  yet  each  form  is  only  a  stage  in  the  life-history 
of  the  same  organism. 

The  form  of  home  life  familiar  in  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  in  which  all  industries  were 
carried  on  under  the  collection  of  roofs  called  the 
homestead,  and  in  which  each  member  of  the  family 
contributed,  by  the  daily  work  of  his  or  her  hands, 
to  the  stock  of  linen,  wool,  implements,  etc.,  which 
have  been  handed  down  even  until  now,  may  be 
likened  to  the  caterpillar  stage  with  its  many  feet,  all 
contributing  to  the  forward  movement.  The  present 
condition  may  be  considered  the  chrysalis  stage,  in 
which  the  useless  feet  are  being  absorbed  and  the 
internal  organs,  even,  are  being  transformed  to  suit 
new  uses  not  yet  recognized.  * 

Home  life  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century"*'^ 
has  lost  nearly  all  the  industries  it  once  possessed ;  it 
is  no  longer  the  progressive  element  in  society;  it  no 
longer  devours  voraciously  whatever  offers  in  the  way 
of  stimulus  and  development;  it  is  stationary  or  even 
retrograding  in  many  ways.  The  family  **  resides" 
now  here,  now  there;  they  hire  a  '*  place,'*  and  the 
children,  instead  of  adding  each  day  some  improve- 
ment, hack  the  trees,  if  there  are  any,  bang  the 
furniture,  tear  the  paper,  and  dig  up  the  walk.  No 
care  or  responsibility  for  property  or  for  the  future 
seems  to  rest  upon  parents  or  children.  So  far  has 
this  gone  that  owners  of  property  recognize  it  and 


lO  THE   COST   OF  LIVING. 

either  refuse  to  rent  to  families  where  there  are 
children  or  charge  a  correspondingly  higher  rent. 

What  a  commentary  on  the  decadence  of  the  ideal 
of  home  life,  and  what  a  pitiful  picture  of  the  moral 
degradation  which  has  gone  with  it!  It  is  destruction 
in  the  shortest  possible  time,  not  construction,  bit 
by  bit,  of  that  which  is  to  last. 

The  century-long  struggle  for  personal  freedom  has 
invaded  the  home.  The  father  feels  no  care  for  the 
child  beyond  paying  the  bills.  The  mother's  respon- 
sibility ends  with  food  and  clothes.  Education  is 
left  to  the  school,  and  manners  to  the  street.  In  the 
rented  house  there  is  little  sense  of  possession;  fre- 
quent movings  render  clothes  more  important  than 
furniture,  and  cause  books  and  pictures  to  be  looked 
upon  as  troublesome.  It  is  easier  to  move  than  to 
clean  house.  The  result  is  social  ferment  and  discon- 
tent and  family  discord. 

Housekeeping  has  become  a  burden  and  not  a 
delight;  every  dollar  spent  on  the  home  is  grudged; 
the  responsibilities  of  keeping  up  a  separate  family 
abode  are  more  and  more  irksome  and  are  readily 
thrown  off ;  the  time  and  money  so  saved  are  frequently 
spent  in  communal  pleasure  rather  than  in  individual 
development.  This  is  a  serious  phase  in  American 
social  life  and  deserves  the  attention  of  all  thoughtful 
persons,  especially  since  it  is  doubtful  if  ''  health  and 
peace  **  are  increased  by  the  so-Cc^lled  improvements. 


I 


STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  II 


**  Man  advances  when  his  comforts  keep  pace  with 
his  intelligence." 

It  is  customary  to  lay  the  blame  on  economic  con- 
ditions and  on  them  alone,  but  the  whole  trouble  lies 
in  the  lack  of  ideals  and  standards  which  should  con- 
trol even  social  tendencies.  Habits  of  life  have  been 
allowed  to  lapse  into  those  of  savagery  where  the 
present  only  guides  action. 

There  are  many  elements  entering  into  the  forma- 
tion of  the  required  standards.  At  present  the  dis- 
cussion will  be  limited  to  the  influence  of  sanitary 
knowledge  and  ideals  upon  the  economic  considera- 
tions which  are  too  apt  to  be  unduly  emphasized. 
This  is  only  applying  to  home  life  the  principles 
governing  public  health. 

It  is  more  economical,  from  a  money  point  of  view, 
to  discharge  all  wastes  into  the  stream  running 
through  a  town  and  to  take  the  water-supply  from 
the  same  stream;  but  it  is  recognized  that  there  is  an 
economy  of  health  as  well  as  of  wealth,  and  that  it 
actually  pays  in  the  end  to  spend  thousands  of  dollars 
on  sewers  and  reservoirs.  Let  the  public  once 
become  convinced  that  the  economy  of  life  in  the 
home  is  to  be  measured,  not  by  the  cost  in  dollars  and 
cents,  but  by  the  product  of  this  life, — healthy, 
happy  men  and  women, — and  we  shall  hear  less 
grumbling  over  the  cost  of  living. 

Man  is  a  gregarious  animal^  but  in  pma^f^i^a^s  he 


OF    THE 
T  T  KT  T  ^r  T  "R  ClT  TV 


12  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

becomes  a  **  living  soul  "  is  he  capable  of  the  highest 
joys  and  the  best  individual  development  when  he  is 
not  crowded  and  jostled  and  drawn  along  without  his 
own  volition. 

The  more  communal  pleasures  increase  and  demand 
a  greater  share  of  the  income,  the  more  cheerless  the 
home  becomes  and  the  more  indifference  is  mani- 
fested toward  the  joys  of  family  life.  The  house 
becomes  only  a  place  of  shelter  and  storage,  to  be 
left  behind  when  real  enjoyment  is  desired.  With  it 
is  associated  only  the  drudgery  of  the  daily  routine, 
not  the  delight  of  living. 

This  tendency  is  shown  not  only  by  the  nightly 
crowds  at  all  popular  pleasure-resorts,  but  by  the 
equally  large  crowds  of  women  seen  daily  on  the 
shopping  streets.  The  estimation  in  which  the  home 
is  held  by  those  who  make  the  purchase  of  a  twenty- 
five-cent  collar  an  excuse  for  three  trips  to  the  city 
cannot  be  very  high. 

If  there  is  to  be  an  aristocracy  in  America,  let  it  be 
an  expression  of  the  real  American  character  which, 
as  Hugo  Miinsterberg  has  pointed  out,  is  beginning 
to  be  very  evident  to  the  student  of  history.  Let  it 
be  shown  in  the  higher  ideals  of  living,  in  the  stand- 
ards of  health,  of  manners,  and  of  aesthetic  surround- 
ings. The  material  is  at  hand.  Who  will  shape  it  ? 
Who  better  fitted  to  mould  it  aright  than  the  young 
men  and  young  women  trained,  in  the  higher  institu- 


STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  1 3 

tions  of  learning,  to  separate  the  true  from  the  false, 
to  appreciate  the  real  and  to  disregard  the  sham  ?  If 
they  cannot  begin  this  work,  then  the  colleges  have 
missed  the  mark  in  the  education  they  have  given. 

The  educated  woman  longs  for  a  career,  for  an 
opportunity  to  influence  the  world.  Just  now  the 
greatest  field  offered  to  her  is  the  elevation  of  the 
home  into  its  place  in  American  life.  The  home  and 
the  school  are  the  two  pillars  upon  which  American 
institutions  stand.  The  proper  correlation  of  these 
is  the  work  of  the  coming  years  if  there  is  not  to  be 
a  collapse  of  democratic  institutions.  The  school 
can  do  much,  but  it  cannot  undo  all  the  mischief  done 
in  the  home. 

If,  as  all  recent  writers  on  the  subject  of  social 
economics  seem  to  be  agreed  must  be  the  aim  of  the 
twentieth  century,  the  Anglo-Saxon  ideal  of  home 
life  is  to  be  maintained,  the  housekeeper,  man  or 
woman,  whichever  it  may  be,  must  take  the  conscious 
direction  of  the  home  life  and  so  order  it  as  to  secure 
not  only  the  most  economical  but  the  most  efificient 
results,  not  in  lavish  display,  not  in  a  large  bank- 
account,  but  in  the  best-developed  men  and  women, 
the  product  of  that  home. 

No  words  are  more  misunderstood  or  misused  than 
thrift  and  frugality.  In  popular  estimation  a  thrifty 
person  is  stingy,  a  frugal  man  is  a  miser,  whereas 
history  shows  that  these  traits  are   those  which  are 


14  THE  COST  OF   LIVING. 

essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  race.  They  are 
the  reasonable  restraints  which  make  for  health  of 
body  and  mind. 

Wise  expenditure  of  money,  time,  and  energy  in 
daily  living,  how  shall  it  be  determined  ?  The  fol- 
lowing pages  offer  no  panacea  for  existing  evils,  only 
a  few  suggestions  as  a  basis  for  future  study. 

The  need  in  household  organization  is  for  a  com- 
plete readjustment  in  accordance  with  modern  condi- 
tions^ an  adjustment  which  may  be  made  without 
losing  that  which  is  essential  if  a  serious  study  is 
undertaken  of  the  various  elements  which  go  to  make 
up  the  daily  routine.  Without  this  basis  of  knowl- 
edge any  effort  will  be  likely  to  cause  confusion. 

I  am  well  aware  that  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to 
change  a  race  tendency,  but  are  we  so  sure  that  this 
ignoring  of  home  duties,  this  attempt  to  bring  the 
home  into  line  with  certain  economic  trend,  is  a  true 
progress,  or  is  it  one  of  the  retrogressions  which 
accompany  all  progress,  and  only  a  phase,  a  result  of 
unthinking  imitation  or  of  ignorant  carelessness  ? 

Charles  Kendall  Adams  in  the  Atlantic  of  August, 
1899,  writes:  **  Education  by  the  press,  education 
by  the  family,  education  by  the  church,  education  by 
the  schools;  it  is  by  these  institutions  alone  that  the 
people  are  to  be  safely  guided,  for  it  is  these  alone 
that  are  the  *  ever-burning  lamps  of  accumulated  wis- 
dom *  that  are  able  to  light  the  pathway  of  progress." 


STANDARDS   OF   LIVING.  1 5 

If,  as  Patten  says,  "  There  is  no  tyrant  like  a 
home;  nothing  else  demands  such  implicit  obedi- 
ence," shall  we  throw  off  the  yoke  and  so  lapse  into 
anarchy,  or  can  we  modify  the  government  of  the 
home  to  suit  the  freedom  within  limits  which  the 
social  trend  of  the  time  recognizes  as  essential  ? 

The  home  has  survived  the  shock  of  losing  most  of 
the  intellectual  and  religious  education  of  the  chil- 
dren. Will  it  bear  the  amputation  of  the  material 
industries  represented  by  the  kitchen  ?  We  answer. 
Yes,  if  the  home  is  that  place  of  moral  education 
where  the  mother  is,  the  mother  to  world-children,  if 
not  to  those  of  her  own  flesh  and  blood.  The  home 
still  means  the  perfection  of  the  child-life  for  which 
it  exists.  It  is  this  ideal  which  will  preserve  the 
Anglo-Saxon  superiority  if  anything  is  able  to  do  i-t. 


1 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   SERVICE   OF   SANITARY   SCIENCE   IN 
INCREASING   PRODUCTIVE   LIFE. 

"A  tendency  to  underestimate  the  future  remains  as  a  relic 
of  savagery." — Bullock. 

"Those  nations  that  have  attained  the  highest  civilization 
and  wielded  the  greatest  influence  over  their  contemporaries 
are  those  that  have  exercised  the  most  careful  guard  over 
health."— Quoted  by  B.  W.  Richardson. 

"Man,  whatever  else  he  may  be,  is  essentially  and  primor- 
dially  a  practical  being,  whose  mind  is  given  him  to  aid  in 
adapting  himself  to  his  environment." — William  James,  1899. 

The  great  complexity  of  modern  life  causes  such  a 
diversity  of  types  that  the  old  proverb  **  What  is  one 
man's  meat  is  another's  poison,"  is  more  than  ever 
applicable.  Therefore,  no  rules  for  the  expenditure 
of  the  income  can  be  given  which  will  suit  all  condi- 
tions; only  certain  principles  may  be  stated  along 
the  lines  of  which  each  must  work  out  his  own  rules 
of  conduct.  The  one  fact  standing  out  clearly  is 
that  if  man  is  to  be  an  efificient,  productive  being,  an 
**  economic  man"  and  not  a  **  social  debtor,"  then 

he  must  be  in  that  condition  of  body  and  mind  whicl 

16 


SANITARY   SCIENCE  AND   PRODUCTIVE  LIFE.       1 7 


will  enable  him  to  do  his  work  in  the  world,  whatever 
that  may  be. 

Instead  of  a  purely  economic  basis,  let  us  consider 
the  standards  of  living  from  the  point  of  view  of  y 
health,  both  physical  and  moral;  of  efficiency,  not 
only  as  a  mechanical  machine,  but  as  a  creature  with 
intellectual  and  aesthetic  possibilities,  as  the  highest 
product  of  civilization. 

It  is  most  difficult  to  draw  the  line  between  those 
comforts  in  daily  life  which  increase  the  uplifting 
tendencies  of  civilization  and  those  luxuries,  those 
forms  of  indulgence  which  degrade  the  soul  and 
debilitate  mind  and  body. 

Increased  facilities  for  personal  cleanliness,  more 
comfortable  beds,  larger  rooms,  greater  variety  of 
food,  better  pictures  on  the  walls,  all  help  to  raise  the 
level  of  daily  life,  above  mere  animal  wants  and  mere 
existence;  but  when  an  individual  becomes  so  refined 
and  delicate  that  existence  becomes  impossible  with- 
out the  luxurious  surroundings  common  in  modern 
days,  he  is  in  a  fair  way  to  become  eliminated  from 
the  factors  of  race  progress.  Unless  such  persons  go 
into  camp  life  or  yacht  life  for  a  few  months  each 
year,  debility  is  sure  to  follow. 

Again,  the  introduction  of  running  water,  of  sew- 
ing-machines, of  servants,  into  the  homes  of  hard- 
worked  women  would  seem  to  be  an  unmixed  blessing, 
but   typhoid    fever    and   diphtheria,    backaches    and 


1 8  THE  COST  OF  LIVING. 

injured  spines,  soured  dispositions  and  endless  bicker- 
ings have  resulted  in  a  lower  stage  of  civilization 
instead  of  a  higher.  What  is  the  matter  with  the 
so-called  advance  in  life  ?  Why  is  it  that  better 
wages,  shorter  hours,  more  physical  comforts  do  not 
lead  to  happiness  or  refinement  ?  Why  is  it  that 
social  questions  seem  more  hopeless  than  ever  before, 
so  that  the  student  of  philanthropy  dreads  to  awaken 
a  happy,  dirty,  lazy  family  to  the  possibilities  before 
it,  lest  the  last  state  shall  be  far  worse  than  the  first  ? 
Because  by  thrusting  the  implements  of  the  highest 
culture  into  the  hands  of  those  not  strong  enough  to 
hold  them  safely,  we  have  given  sharp-edged  tools  to 
children.  '*  When  civilized  man  has  more  privileges 
than  he  deserves  or  requires,  he  lapses  into  practical 
barbarism." 

The  so-called  improvements  are  seized  upon  not 
because  of  their  value,  but  in  imitation  of  others. 
The  houses,  furniture,  food,  ornaments  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  are  chosen  because  some  one  else 
has  them,  not  because  of  any  need  in  one's  own  con- 
sciousness which  they  satisfy. 

Is  not  this  trait  of  mere  imitation  without  the  use 
of  thought  or  reason  a  most  serious  menace  to  real 
progress  ?  Go  through  a  great  department  store, 
note-book  in  hand,  and  check  off  the  articles  which 
are  valueless  either  for  use  or  ornament  and  those 
which,  with  a  semblance  of  either,  will  lose  the  little 


SANITARY  SCIENCE   AnD  PRODUCTITO^LIFE.       IQ 

value  they  have  with  the  first  day  of  use;  then  go 
into  the  home  for  which  the  articles  are  destined  and 
note  the  amount  of  money  spent  for  these  things  in 
comparison  with  that  spent  for  the  essentials  of  good 
living  and  for  the  things  which  make  for  moral  and 
mental  advancement. 

The  only  practicable  remedy  yet  proposed  is  edu- 
cation in  true  standards  of  living,  in  what  constitutes 
better  homes,  more  comfortable  conditions,  and  in  a 
clearer  perception  of  those  tendencies  toward  mere 
imitation  and  luxury  which  lead  to  degeneration  of 
mind  and  body. 

What  better  method  of  determining  these  standards 
than  by  measuring  them  with  the  measure  of  health 
gained, — physical,  mental,  spiritual  health  ?  Any 
comfort,  any  expenditure  of  money  which  will  increase 
health  is  legitimate,  for  health  is  not  only  the  work- 
man's capital,  it  is  the  essential  factor  in  the  success 
of  the  author,  the  business  man,  and  the  pleasure- 
seeker.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  all  above  what  is 
needed  for  healthful  development  is  luxury  and  tends 
to  debasement. 

An  increased  food-supply  would  be  conducive  to 
the  health  of  the  laborer,  while  the  very  abundance 
on  the  tables  of  those  who  take  no  thought  in  the 
matter  may  lead  to  over-indulgence  and  undermined 
health. 

Relief  from  daily  drudgery  will  render  the  life  of 


-A 


^O  THE  COST  OF  LIVING. 

many  a  woman  more  tolerable,  but  when  it  only 
results  in  idleness,  dissatisfaction,  and  a  mania  for 
shopping  and  the  bargain-counter,  such  relief  is  not 
in  the  line  of  higher  standards  of  living,  but  is  in  the 
nature  of  luxury,  which  undermines  the  health  of  the 
body  politic  and  leads  to  sure  decay. 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind. that  standards  are 
not  the  same  for  all;  that  which  is  luxury  for  one 
family  may  be  a  necessity  for  another,  so  powerful  is 
habit  and  education,  but  each  should  have  only  that 
standard  which  proves  conducive  to  the  best  health, 
and  in  this  the  development  of  sanitary  science  is  of 
the  greatest  service.  Standards  of  living  should  be 
regulated,  not  by  money  spent,  not  by  servile  imita- 
tion of  others,  but  by  that  which  will  produce  the 
best  results  in  health  of  body  and  health  of  mind. 

At  first  sight  this  might  seem  to  be  pure  material- 
ism, but  nothing  is  better  recognized  to-day  than  that 
health  includes  contentment  of  mind  and  serenity  of 
soul;  that  an  environment  of  pictures,  books,  and 
pleasant  society  will  bring  relish  to  the  plainest  food 
and  serve  to  maintain  the  highest  ideals. 

It  is,  then,  not  in  the  material  portion  of  the  daily 
living  that  we  are  to  look  for  improvement  so  much 
as  in  the  ideals^  standards,  aspirations,  by  which  the 
uses  of  the  materials  are  governed.  And  it  is  just  in 
this  particular  that  most  of  the  recent  discussion  of 
household    economics   and    woman's  work,   and    the 


SANITARY   SCIENCE   AND   PRODUCTIVE   LIFE.       21 

conditions  of  living,  seem  to  fail.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  that  if  the  material  conditions  of  the  home 
are  ameliorated,  if  the  kitchen  is  taken  out  of  the 
house,  if  the  charwoman  lives  outside,  if  the  artistic 
decorator  has  been  allowed  free  scope  in  the  drawing- 
room,  if  the  school  teaches  cooking  and  sewing,  if 
the  college  teaches  business  law  and  economics,  or  if 
women  receive  the  same  wages  as  men  and  have  the 
right  to  say  how  taxes  shall  be  spent, — that  when  any 
one  or  all  of  these  things  are  obtained,  then  life  will 
be  all  sweetness  and  light. 

But  these  material  conditions,  while  having  their 
value,  do  not  in  themselves  go  to  the  root  of  the 
matter.  Their  chief  function  is  in  the  influence  they 
have  on  race  ideals,  on  individuals  or  group  standards. 
It  is  in  the  perfection  of  control  of  matter  by  mind 
that  higher  civilization  consists.  The  savage  is 
dominated  by  nature;  the  man  is  civilized  in  propor- 
tion as  he  dominates  nature  and  bends  hitherto  un- 
conquerable natural  forces  to  minister  to  his  needs. 

The  housewife  who  is  worried  by  her  servants, 
cheated  by  her  tradesmen,  and  is  helpless  before  her 
furnace  and  her  cook,  is  still  a  savage,  has  not  grasped 
the  meaning  of  the  ennvironment  which  we  call  home. 

A  certain  degree  of  exertion,  bodily  and  mental, 
self-control  and  conscious  direction  of  powers  of 
mind,  are  essential  alike  to  bodily  health  and  indi- 
vidual development.    When  release  from  the  necessity 


22  THE   COST  OF   LIVING. 

of  toil  brings  such  bodily  indolence  and  such  mental 
indulgence  as  to  result  in  lack  of  stimulus  to  useful 
activity;  when  the  throwing  off  of  religious  trammels 
renders  moral  questions  difficult  of  decision,  then  this 
freedom  tends  to  disease  of  body  and  mind.  In 
other  words,  the  moment  ease  of  living  lowers  vitality 
and  lessens  resistance  to  disease,  that  moment  the 
boundary  between  comfort  and  luxury  has  been 
passed. 

To  have  pleasure  in  living  implies  an  ideal  to  live 
for,  a  goal  to  reach  by  strivings  Where  no  incentive 
naturally  exists,  as  is  sometimes  the  case  with  those 
who  have  the  traditional  golden  spoon,  artificial  prizes 
are  offered,  tournaments,  yacht-races,  millions  to  be 
made,  and  for  the  women  some  hobby  of  collecting, 
of  travel,  of  self-culture. 

In  humbler  life,  to  gain  a  home  for  wife  and  chil- 
dren, to  secure  an  education  for  a  loved  son  or 
daughter,  is  incentive  sufficient  to  sweeten  toil  and 
shorten  long  hours  of  labor. 

To  **  rise  in  life,"  as  indicated  by  size  of  house, 
number  of  servants,  or  price  of  bric-k-bric,  has  been 
the  unworthy  motive  of  many  a  household,  and  in 
that  way  lies  death  to  all  the  better  ideals. 

It  has  been  clearly  brought  out  by  several  recent 
writers  that  the  prevailing  economic,  political,  and 
social  ideals  have  been  profoundly  influenced  by  the 
acceptance  of  that  law  of  evolution  in  the  organic 


I 

I 


SANITARY   SCIENCE   AND    PRODUCTIVE   LIFE.       23 

world  which  counts  the  individual  as  nothing  except 
as  a  factor  in  race  progress;  which  demonstrates  that 
only  the  fittest  survives;  that  through  the  strongest 
are  race  characteristics  passed  on. 

The  ideals  governing  the  thought  of  intelligent 
persons  a  century  ago  were  development  of  the  in- 
dividual and  protection  of  the  weak.  This  indi- 
viduality is  now  threatened  by  trusts  and  great 
corporations,  crushing  to  the  wall  all  weak  competi- 
tors. The  methods  of  education,  even,  bring  a  whole 
class  or  school  up  to  the  same  standard  without  refer- 
ence to  individual  preference,  and  both  tend  to  reduce 
to  a  communistic  level  all  but  the  very  few. 

Moreover  in  family  life,  as  in  political,  irresponsi- 
bility has  come  in  with  the  going  out  of  the  religious 
ideal.  Self-sacrifice  and  menial  toil  are  despised  in 
the  light  of  -the  economic  ideal  of  the  present.  The 
home  has  ceased  to  be  the  glowing  centre  of  produc- 
tion from  which  radiate  all  desirable  goods,  and  has 
become  but  a  pool  toward  which  products  made  in 
other  places  flow — a  place  of  consumption,  not  of 
production. 

Instead  of  a  nursery  of  good  citizens,  teaching 
obedience,  thrift,  self-denial,  self-helpfulness,  the 
home  has  become  for  many  a  place  of  selfish  ease,  of 
freedom  amounting  to  license,  a  receiving  all  and 
giving  nothing. 

The  family  as  a  unit  stands  between  the  socialist 

W     Y^  rva  -fa -a  r 


24  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

ideal  of  the  individual  as  a  unit  and  the  economic 
ideal  of  the  community  as  a  unit. 

So  long  as  the  anticipated  joys  of  a  future  world 
could  sweeten  daily  toil  and  flavor  daily  bread ;  so 
long  as  the  pleasure  of  giving  to  the  missionary  cause 
made  an  extra  hour's  labor  pleasant;  so  long  as  saving 
for  the  children  was  a  high  ambition,  little  was  heard 
of  housekeeping  troubles  or  of  overdrawn  incomes. 
When,  however,  the  ethical  and  altruistic  point  of 
view  became  changed  and  from  childhood  each  one 
considered  his  own  wishes  as  of  more  consequence 
than  those  of  the  family,  and  when  temptation  was 
offered  in  the  form  of  unheard-of  luxuries  on  the  in- 
stalment plan,  and  when  food  became  abundant, 
representing  high-class  living,  then  a  general  reckless- 
ness possessed  the  household  as  well  as  the  coal-miner 
or  the  lumberman.  The  housewife  has  but  followed 
their  example  and  paralleled  the  waste  of  small-coal 
in  the  mining  region  and  the  wholesale  destruction  of 
forests,  by  her  garbage-pail  and  overfurnished  rooms. 
She  is  not  primarily  to  blame  for  the  fact  that  average 
American  housekeeping  costs  twice  as  much  as  is 
necessary;  it  is  due  to  the  general  reckless  extrava- 
gance in  the  air. 

It  becomes  important  to  ask,  *'  What  are  the  stand- 
ards, not  of  bare  existence,  but  of  good  living — of 
physical  comfort,  mental  health,  and  spiritual  satiS' 
faction  ? " 


SANITARY   SCIENCE  AND   PRODUCTIVE   LIFE.       2$ 

If  your  ideal,  gentle  reader,  is  that  of  the  sleek 
tabby  cat,  plenty  of  food  and  sleep,  the  softest 
corner  and  no  duties,  then  we  have  no  message  for 
you.  To  live  is  to  appreciate  the  joy  of  being  a  part 
of  the  world  of  action,  to  share  in  the  joy  of  work, 
and  work  for  mankind;  this  joy  includes  an  appre- 
hension of  the  possible  meaning  of  it  all. 

Most  human  actions  are  prompted  by  the  desire  to 
escape  pain  or  to  procure  pleasure.  These  efforts 
will  be  successful  in  proportion  as  knowledge  controls 
these  actions.  

Human  welfare  includes  health  of  mind  as  well  as 
health  of  body,  and  sanitary  science,  in  its  broadest 
sense,  includes  all  that  relates  to  either.  It  is  a 
knowledge  of  the  practical  standard  of  sound  health 
for  the  community  and  of  the  means  of  securing  it. 
Sanitary  science  not  only  teaches  the  means  of  in- 
creasing the  productive  power  of  the  wage-earner  by 
lessening  his  days  of  sickness,  by  so  nourishing  his 
body  that  it  may  serve  him  longer  and  with  more 
efificiency,  but  it  also  furnishes  the  rules  of  conduct 
which  make  any  man  capable  of  the  highest  enjoy- 
ment of  life  by  teaching  him  self-control  in  the  use 
of  all  that  goes  to  make  up  the  sum  of  human  happi- 
ness. 

**  Children  are  workers  in  preparation,  are  future 
citizens.  The  state  cannot  afford  to  allow  them  to 
grow     up     inefficient."      Therefore    public    welfare 


26  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

demands  that  the  home  life  shall  be  governed  by  the 
best  knowledge  which  science  has  been  able  to  gather 
with  reference  to  health  and  efficiency. 

It  is  man  only  who  has  the  power  to  see  beyond 
the  present  and  by  resistance  to  its  alluring  tempta- 
tions to  secure  future  gain. 

Each  human  being  has  a  money  value  to  the  state  in 
proportion  as  he  is  a  productive  individual  with  either 
hands  or  brain.  Not  only  death  but  sickness  lessens 
the  usefulness  of  an  individual,  since  the  care  of  one 
sick  person  means  loss  of  work  to  others,  expense  for 
drugs  and  physicians,  and  it  means  even  more  loss  by 
the  weakening  effect  of  sorrow  and  anxiety. 

The  higher  the  standard  of  living,  the  more  costly 
do  the  accessories  of  sickness  become  and  the  greater 
the  blighting  effect  upon  the  higher  intellectual  facul- 
ties. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  on  an  average  each 
death  in  a  community  means  720  days  of  sickness  with 
its  attendant  cost  in  money  and  anxiety. 

For  the  standard  of  income  we  are  now  chiefly  con- 
sidering this  may  bring  an  actual  expense  amounting 
to  even  five  thousand  dollars.  It  may  mean  the 
crippling  of  the  family  as  to  the  children's  education, 
perhaps  loss  of  position  of  the  father,  perhaps  years 
of  wearing  invalidism  for  the  mother,  and  a  loss  to 
society  of  the  benefit  which  an  efficient  family  always 
Qonferst 


SANITARY   SCIENCE   AND   PRODUCTIVE   LIFE.        27 

When  it  is  considered  that  the  death-rate  in 
America  is  nearly  double  that  which  is  estimated  as 
necessary,  and  that  ten  in  every  thousand  needlessly 
die,  half  of  them  perhaps  in  the  prime  of  life,  that 
for  a  city  of  one  hundred  thousand  this  means  five 
hundred  deaths  annually  of  persons  who  are  most 
valuable  to  the  community,  it  will  be  seen  why  the 
study  of  sanitary  science  is  so  strongly  urged  and 
why  the  cost  of  the  various  departments  of  household 
expenditure  should  be  considered  not  only  in  the 
light  of  economics  and  aesthetics,  but  of  hygiene. 

If  the  requirements  for  healthful  living  can  be  once 
understood  and  an  ideal  held  up  to  the  young  student 
while  his  habits  are  yet  plastic,  a  great  advance  is 
possible  in  the  pleasures  of  life  and  especially  in  the 
beauty  of  living  in  conscious  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
life. 


CHAPTER    III. 

HOUSEHOLD    EXPENDITURE.     DIVISION  BETWEEN 
DEPARTMENTS   ACCORDING   TO   IDEALS. 

"  National  prosperity  depends  less  upon  the  amount  of  wealth 
than  upon  the  utilization  of  the  national  possessions  in  deriv- 
ing the  annual  income." — Bullock. 

"  Economy  of  time,  effort,  and  materials,  and  therefore  of 
expense,  is  in  essence  scientific." 

"With  a  progressive  people,  the  satisfaction  of  existence 
wants  serves  merely  to  arouse  new  desires  and  to  stimulate 
men  to  satisfy  them." 

The  sum  of  ten  billions  of  dollars,  more  or  less,  is 
spent  in  the  United  States  for  household  expenses, 
and  yet  very  little  attention  has  been  paid  to  the 
rational  division  of  the  annual  income  between  the 
different  departments.  The  business  man  has  found 
it  easier  to  make  money  than  to  save  it;  the  econo- 
mist has  been  fully  occupied  in  finding  out  how 
money  was  made. 

That  the  results  of  this  outlay  are  not  satisfactory 
there  is  abundant  evidence.  That  the  money  is  not 
economically   used   is   seen   in   the  rapid  changes  in 

habits  of  living  due  to  economic  pressure. 

28 


HOUSEHOLD   EXPENDITURE.  29 

Hence,  before  it  is  too  late,  a  careful  study  of  the 
conditions  of  life  affecting  the  household  expenditure 
should  be  made. 

The  cost  of  living  in  any  given  case  depends  upon 
the  ideas  and  standards  of  the  person  spending  the 
money;  that  is,  it  is  a  mental  rather  than  a  material 
limitation;  a  result  of  education  rather  than  of  loca- 
tion. 

In  America  the  typical  family  of  the  economist,  of 
father,  mother,  and  three  children  under  the  earning 
age,  can  live  very  comfortably  on  ten  dollars  a  week 
or  five  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  the  necessities  of 
material  existence.  Moreover,  if  its  members  will 
avail  themselves  of  the  education  of  the  libraries,  of 
the  art  museums,  of  the  lectures  and  classes,  of  the 
baths  and  parks,  pleasure-grounds,  the  non-material 
pleasures,  and  of  the  opportunities  provided  for  the 
children  at  the  public  expense  in  most  cities,  their 
actual  income  is  equivalent  to  double  that  sum. 

The  real  struggle  in  living  comes  in  the  case  of 
those  whose  character  and  principles  demand  that 
they  shall  pay  for  the  pleasures  as  well  as  the  neces- 
sities of  life,  and  in  whom  the  desire  for  ownership 
demands  the  personal  possession  of  books,  and 
pictures,  for  which  they  are  willing  to  deny  them- 
selves even  comforts.  An  income  of  sixteen  dollars 
a  week  or  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year  admits  of 
this  gratification  in  a  fair  degree   provided  that  the 


30  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

fines  exacted  for  the  disobedience  of  nature's  laws  are 
not  too  heavy. 

Therefore,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  we  may  say 
that  our  present  discussion  begins  with  that  sum,  or 
the  lower  limit  of  choice,  and  from  that  to  an  upper 
limit  of  four  or  five  thousand  dollars — since  above 
that  sum,  as  a  rule,  quite  different  elements  enter 
i.e.,  either  much  is  given  in  charity  or  in  the  sus- 
taining of  public  institutions,  clubs,  societies,  or  in 
collecting  books,  pictures,  etc.,  or  in  promoting  sport 
or  industries.  While  the  same  general  and  high- 
minded  ideals  should  govern  the  expenditure  of  the 
larger  income,  there  is  not  that  need  of  close  calcula- 
tion on  some  points;  also,  in  general,  there  is  a  far 
better  business  management  of  the  larger  in- 
come. 

In  the  present  condition  of  American  society  prob- 
ably the  greatest  difficulty  is  felt  by  those  who  have 
from  fifteen  hundred  to  twenty-five  hundred  dollars 
a  year  for  all  expenses,  because  their  tastes  are  edu- 
cated and  their  habits  acquired  in  such  a  way  that 
twice  that  amount  would  be  needed  to  make  any 
approach  to  satisfaction,  for  each  step  only  opens  the 
door  to  another  want,  and  also  because  they  are 
rarely  skilled  in  the  use  of  money. 

A  writer  in   the  Fortnightly  Review  *  has   cleverly 

*  Joseph  Jacobs,  Fortnightly  Review,  1899. 


1 


HOUSEHOLD   EXPENDITURE.  3 1 

sketched  the  **mean"  Englishman  as  distinguished 
from  the  **  average"  of  the  economist.  This  man 
earns  about  six  dollars  a  week.  The  ''mean" 
American  will  earn  at  least  ten  dollars  a  week,  and 
with  the  rapid  rise  made  possible  by  better  industrial 
conditions  and  the  greater  opportunities  for  earning 
money  the  "mean"  American  family  should  have 
fifteen  dollars  a  week,  with  twenty  in  sight  as  a  stim- 
ulus to  exertion.  From  this  class  of  intelligent,  self- 
respecting,  self-supporting,  industrious  persons  rises, 
in  the  very  next  generation,  thanks  to  free  schools 
and  democratic  plasticity,  a  group  which  are  typical 
Americans  whatever  their  grandfathers  were.  These 
are  the  educated  persons  in  the  community,  young 
college  graduates  in  business,  professors  and  teachers 
in  schools  and  colleges,  clerks,  small  tradesmen,  and 
skilled  workmen.  And  the  income  of  this  typical 
family  is  from  fifteen  hundred  to  three  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  Such  are  the  possibilities  in  the  in- 
dustrial conditions  of  America  that  it  is  not  uncommon 
for  it  to  rise  to  thirty  thousand  dollars  before  the 
children  are  grown. 

Under  the  pressure  of  nineteenth-century  condi- 
tions, it  has  been  found  that  the  home  as  at  present 
conducted  is  not  managed  on  an  economical  basis  so 
far  as  money  value  or  outward  semblance  of  luxury 
is  concerned.  That  it  fails  in  the  more  important 
essentials  of  comfort  is  proved  by  the  great  increase 


32  THE   COST  OF   LIVING. 

of  clubs  and  of  hotel  life.  On  what  grounds,  there- 
fore, can  the  justification  of  individual  homes  bd^fl 
based  ?  Only  on  the  conceded  fact  before  stated 
that  the  home  is  the  germ  of  Anglo-Saxon  civiliza- 
tion. If  the  income  is  to  be  used  so  as  to  give  the 
fullest  satisfaction  of  human  wants,  there  must  be 
classification  of  those  wants  in  order  of  importance 
and  some  restraint  of  unreasoning  impulse.  '*  Style 
in  living"  has  no  **  standards,"  no  basis  in  morals, 
religion,  or  economics.  The  fashion  of  the  day  or 
the  whim  of  the  moment  is  indulged  without  a 
thought  of  the  consequences  to  the  next  generation. 
This  absence  of  safeguards,  this  letting  down  of 
ethical  barriers  brings  countless  temptations  to  ex- 
travagance. 

To  reconcile  the  uplifting  tendency  of  the  struggle 
to  **  better  one's  condition  "  with  the  degrading 
result  of  striving  to  seem  richer  than  one  really  is  and 
to  avoid  the  debilitating  effect  of  luxuries  is  America's 
problem  for  the  twentieth  century.  As  has  already 
been  said,  it  is  for  those  educated  persons  with  one 
thousand  to  three  thousand  dollars  annual  income  to 
lead  the  way  in  the  studies  necessary  to  be  under- 
taken before  any  authoritative  statements  can  be 
made,  and  to  show  what  the  public  ought  to  have;  not 
always  to  cater  to  what  the  pubhc  likes. 

The  cost  of  living  should  be  so  balanced  as  to 
secure  the  greatest  comfort  and  convenience  possible 


HOUSEHOLD    EXPENDITURE.  33 

without  sacrificing  anything  necessary  for  health, 
physical,  mental,  or  moral. 

A  few  examples  of  actual  budgets  will  be  instruc- 
tive as  illustrative  of  methods  of  attacking  the 
problem.  That  very  little  variation  is  allowable  until 
the  lower  limit  of  choice  is  reached  is  seen  in  a  com- 
parison of  the  expenditure  of  the  **  mean  "  English- 
man and  of  a  New  York  family  in  about  the  same 
walk  in  life. 

Nos.  I  to  5  illustrate  the  variety  of  choice.  One 
family  economizes  on  rent,  another  on  clothes, 
another  on  other  expenses.  No  4  is,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  a  very  common  American  budget.  No.  5  in 
the  table  shows  what  may  be  done  by  a  thrifty  family 
who  will  do  their  own  work,  and  live  in  the  suburbs 
where  the  garden  reduces  the  food  expense.  No.  6 
shows  how  many  families  of  women  economize.  A 
widow,  with  a  mother  and  two  children,  is  a  dress- 
maker and  has  her  noon  meal  and  most  of  the  cloth- 
ing for  the  family  from  her  customers. 

Nos.  7  and  8  are  most  instructive  as  showing  types 
in  different  localities,  but  illustrating  what  must  be 
paid  for  the  necessities  of  life.  It  is  doubtful  if 
either  family  could  safely  cut  down  on  food. 

Dr.  Engel  has  formulated  four  laws  confirmed  daily 
more  and  more.  As  Dr.  Nitti  says:  '^  Laws  of  which, 
in  all  the  family  budgets  I  have  examined,  I  have 
myself  been  able  to  prove  the  absolute  exactness." 


34 


THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 
TYPICAL   BUDGETS. 


Family  Income. 


$3098,  three  adults,  two  chil- 
dren   

$2500  (Mass.),  three  adults,  no 
children 

$2500  (Mass.),  two  adults,  one 
child,  much  company 

$1980  (St.  Louis),,  four  adults, 
two  children 

$950  (Mass.),  two  adults,  three 
children . : 


)00  (Boston),  two  adults,  two 
children 


Percentage  for 


$535  (N.  Y.),  two  adults,  three 
children 

$312,  "  mean  "  Englishman: 
two   adults,  three  children  . . 

$300,  Dr.  Engel's  estimates. . .. 


27  5 

25 

32 

36.3 

20 

23 

55.2 

55.2 
62 


rt  o 


21. I 

25 
18 

24.2 
19 

26 

22.4 

15.5 
12 


o 


16.8 

13 

18 

20.9 

16 


5.3 

8.9 

5 


)-)  bo 


18 


5^ 

I 
9.4 

I3-I 
16 


24.6 

25 
22 
60 
30 
26.1 


15-9 

7.7 

7-3 
5-0 


**  The  Jirs^  law  is  that  the  proportion  between  ex- 
penditure and  nutriment  grows  in  geometric  progres- 
sion in  an  inverse  ratio  to  well-being;  in  other  words, 
the  higher  the  income  the  smaller  is  the  percentage 
of  cost  of  subsistence.  The  second  is  that  clothing 
assumes  and  keeps  a  distinctly  constant  proportion  in 
the  whole.     The  third  is  that  lodging,  warming,  and 


HOUSEHOLD   EXfe;El^DlTURE.^^^\^/^  35 

lighting  have  an  invariable  proportion  whatever  the 
income.  The  fotirth  is  that  the  more  the  income 
increases  the  greater  is  the  proportion  of  the  dif- 
ferent expenses  which  express  the  degree  of  well- 
being. 

''  The  less  a  worker  gains  the  more  he  invests  in 
food,  renouncing  out  of  necessity  all  other  desires." 
{Bull,  de  r Institut  International  de  Statist,^  1887,  PP« 

50,  55,  57.) 

From  the  examination  of  various  budgets  and  from 
observation  of  many  families,  as  well  as  from  twenty- 
five  years'  experience  in  housekeeping,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  tendency  to  extravagance  in  the 
American  household  comes  in  the  two  columns  Food 
and  Operating  Expenses — if  the  latter  include  the 
incidentals  or  sundries  and  unexpected  outgoes,  which 
count  up  very  fast.  Individual  extravagance  may 
frequently  occur  in  clothes. 

In  food  I  believe  the  trouble  is  largely  one  of 
waste.  Twice  as  much  is  ordered  as  is  really  neces- 
sary, and  in  small  families  where  there  is  no  separate 
servants'  table,  unless  very  great  care  is  taken,  large 
portions  of  the  most  expensive  food  are  left  to  be 
served  in  the  kitchen,  so  that  the  total  cost  of  food  is 
very  high.  If  the  ordering  is  left  to  the  cook,  this  is 
sure  to  be  so.  It  is  for  the  interest  of  the  grocer  and 
butcher  to  have  the  bills  large,  and  the  tips  they  give 
to  secure  this  would  astonish  many  a  man  who  now 


36  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 


wonders  at  the  size  of  his  bills.  Only  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  how  much  is  really  needed,  and  a  close 
watch  over  the  amounts  ordered,  can  keep  the  food 
cost  down.  It  is  policy  to  allow  the  common,  in- 
expensive articles  such  as  flour  and  sugar  and  potatoes 
to  be  used  freely,  but  the  quantities  of  meats,  high- 
priced  vegetables,  and  confections  should  be  carefully 
calculated.  One  remedy  for  the  extravagance  and 
consequent  debt  resulting  from  this  excess  of  expen- 
diture in  one  or  more  directions  may  be  found  in  a 
system  of  strict  account-keeping  as  a  check  to  the 
impulse  to  purchase  which  is  often  repented  of  when 
too  late. 

In  order  to  render  the  accounts  of  value  there  must 
be  certain  recognized  standards  of  possible  attainment 
to  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  young  people  in  establish- 
ing the  traditions  of  the  new  home. 

The  following  table  showirLg  a  theoretical  division 
of  the  several  incomes  may  be  helpful  in  some  cases 
and  may  stimulate  the  family  provider  to  keep 
accounts  so  systematically  as  to  be  able  to  give  the 
several  percentages  along  these  division  lines. 

I  hear  the  protest  arising  from  three  fourths  of  my 
readers  that  life  would  not  be  worth"  living  under 
these  circumstances;  it  would  be  bondage.  I  reply, 
not  after  the  habit  is  once  formed.  Bagehot  said, 
**  There  is  no  pain  like  the  pain  of  a  new  idea  " ;  but 
on  the  other  hand  Mark  Twain  wrote,  "  You  cannot 


1 


I 


HOUSEHOLD  EXPENDITURE. 
SUGGESTED  BUDGETS. 


37 


Family  Income. 


Two  adults  and  two''or  three 
children  (equal  to  four 
adults) : 

Ideal  division 

$2000  to  $4000 

$800  to  $1000 

$500  to  $800 

Under  $500 


Percentage  for 


2S 
25 
30 
45 
60 


20    JZ 

20  ± 
20 

15 
15 


a-' 

be  , 
c  in 


15    ± 
15    ± 

10 

9 


o  o  c 

^  3  > 


15  ± 

20  ± 

15 

10 
10 


25 

20 

25 

20 

ID 


throw  habit  out  of  the  window;  it  must  be  coaxed 
down-stairs  one  step  at  a  time."  New  habits  may 
be  difficult  to  establish,  but  once  fixed  they  maintain 
themselves.  The  moral  of  which  is  that  it  will  pay 
in  the  end  to  establish  a  custom  of  looking  after  the 
small  details  which  will  cease  to  be  a  burden  after  a 
few  months.  This  is  especially  necessary  if  the  help 
is  constantly  changing.  Let  the  rules  of  the  house 
be  known  when  engaging  any  servant,  then  there  will 
be  no  difficulty.  Much  of  the  confusion  so  prevalent 
arises  because  there  are  no  rules — no  accounts. 

Again,  the  temptation  to  spend  for  things  pleasant 
but  not  needful,  or  even  beautiful,  either  for  the 
household  or  for  personal  gratification  are  many,  and 


1 


38  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

it  requires  some  moral  support,  such  as  an  account- 
book  or  some  great  ideal  to  strive  for,  to  keep  the 
pocketbook  closed.      What  the  liquor  saloon  is  to  the 
drinking  man  the   bargain-counter  is  to  the   aimless  11 
woman.  * 

The  reason  a  young  man  fears  to  marry  is  not 
because  of  the  present  cost  of  a  house,  but  because 
he  cannot  estimate  the  future  cost  of  running  it.  He 
has  no  rule  to  go  by. 

In  most  newly  established  homes  there  is  no  gov- 
erning principle  at  the  foundation  to  which  both  man 
and  wife  are  committed  and  for  which  both  are  will- 
ing to  make  sacrifices. 

How  far  shall  be  carried  the  habit  of  saving,  of  life- 
insurance,  etc.,  is  an  open  question.  Certainly  each 
family  should  be  able  to  take  care  of  itself  under  all 
circumstances, — such  as  sickness,  lack  of  work  for  a 
reasonable  time,  etc. 

The  best  investment  is  in  the  education  of  the 
children  to  be  self-supporting,  and  all  should  try  to 
**  better  themselves  "  as  the  phrase  goes,  because  the 
whole  community  will  rise  with  the  elevation  of  indi- 
vidual homes.  That  a  certain  amount  should  be  put 
by  each  year  for  an  emergency  fund  goes  without 
saying;  how  much  depends  upon  circumstances.  If 
life-insurance  is  the  best,  then  in  that;  if  saving- 
banks  or  bonds,  or  if  in  small  amounts  of  cash,  then 
in  them,     This  question  will  bear  study;  but  in  all 


HOUSEHOLD   EXPENDITURE.  39 

cases  each  child  of  rich  or  poor  should  be  so  devel- 
oped mentally  and  physically  as  to  be  capable  of  tak- 
ing care  of  himself  if  he  is  ever  called  upon  so  to  do. 

If  a  family  has  learned  to  lead  a  dignified,  comfort- 
able life  on  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  spend  more.  It  is  only  when  the  life  has 
been  badly  adjusted  that  increase  of  income  brings 
with  it  no  answering  response. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  socialist  limit  of  eight 
hundred  dollars  a  year  is  to  prevail,  then  the  family 
that  has  had  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  dollars 
has  a  better  chance  of  being  happy  than  the  one  that 
has  felt  pinched  on  ten  thousand  dollars. 

It  must  be  said  for  tho^e  who  advocate  the  eight- 
hundred-dollar  limit  that  they  assume  that  much  of 
pleasure,  that  all  of  the  education,  and  many  of  the 
expenses  now  borne  by  private  means  will  then  be 
provided  for  by  the  state. 

At  present  we  may,  I  think,  take  eight  hundred 
dollars  as  the  limit  below  which  a  family  can  only 
take  care  of  its  physical  needs, — rent,  food,  clothes, 
life-insurance,  etc.  For  amusement,  recreation,  edu- 
cation, instruction,  it  turns  to  the  means  provided  at 
public  expense. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
THE  HOUSE.     RENT  OR  VALUE  AND  FURNISHING. 

"  Science  has  little  power  to  alter  national  thought  by  direct 
means,  but  it  has  great  power  in  creating  new  economic  con- 
ditions, and  these  modify  national  thought." — S.  N.  Patten. 

"Public  opinion  is  changed  by  economic  conditions — not 
by  creeds."— S.  N.  Patten. 

"  The  most  judicious  use  of  money  is  to  form  for  one's  self 
first  of  all  as  pleasant  and  comfortable  a  home  as  is  consistent 
with  one's  means.  Money  thus  spent  is  money  safely  in- 
vested."— Edmond  Demolin. 

The  factors  governing  the  per  cent  of  the  income 
paid  for  housing  are: 

1.  Sanitary  requirements. 

2.  Social  requirement;  location;  architectural  ap- 
pearance. 

3.  Standards  of  living. 

The  house  is  one  of  the  most  serious  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  ideal  living,  for  we  have  inherited  the  sins 
of  our  ancestors  in  tangible  form  and,  in  addition, 
those  of  conscienceless  contractors  and  greedy  cap- 
italists. 

The  family  whose  needs  we  are  considering — one 

40 


THE  HOUSE.   RENT  OR  VALUE  AND  FURNISHING.  4I 

with  an  annual  income  of  fifteen  hundred  to  three 
thousand  dollars — finds  the  greatest  difficulty  in  secur- 
ing the  conditions  given  above  either  for  purchase  or 
rent.  Neglect  of  sanitary  precautions  by  the  owners 
of  houses  has  been  so  flagrant  that  the  expense  of 
putting  a  place  in  condition  to  live  in  is  often  nearly 
equal  to  that  required  to  build  anew.  The  rapid, 
irresponsible  growth  of  many  of  our  towns,  whole 
streets  being  built  up  before  any  system  of  grading 
or  of  sewerage  has  been  established,  has  done  much 
to  keep  the  death-rate  high.  The  frequent  changes 
in  streets  or  section  due  to  the  putting  in  of  railroads 
or  factories  or  to  the  intrusion  of  business  neces- 
sitates as  frequent  removal,  and  to  this  is  largely  due 
the  habit  our  typical  family  has  acquired  of  renting 
instead  of  owning  a  house. 

The  rent  is  a  definite  and  certain  expense,  and  a 
place  of  one's  own  is,  in  the  shifting  condition  of  the 
modern  town,  a  most  uncertain  asset  and  not  the  safe 
investment  it  has  formerly  been,  and  besides  it  is  a 
continual  source  of  unexpected  expense.  For  in- 
stance, a  change  in  the  city  regulations  as  to  plumb- 
ing may  entail  an  expense  equal  to  a  year's  rent. 

At  present  this  feature  of  the  cost  of  living  cannot 
be  ignored,  but  must  be  reckoned  with  in  any  discus- 
sion of  family  expenses.  It  must  be  acknowledged 
that  although  some  families  do  sufTer  exceeding  dis- 
comfort in  order  that,  judged  by  the  house  they  live 


42  THE   COST   OF  LIVING. 

in,  they  may  be  supposed  to  have  reached  a  higher 
rank,  yet  an  increasing  proportion  of  intelligent 
young  people  are  looking  for  better  sanitary  condi- 
tions as  well  as  for  social  standing. 

Nevertheless  the  instability  of  the  material  home, 
the  fact  of  renting  instead  of  owning  an  abode,  has 
made  possible  much  of  the  retrograde  movement  in 
home  manners  and  customs.  While  there  should  be 
an  ideal  which  is  independent  of  the  mere  material 
surroundings,  as  a  fact  results  seem  to  show  that  it  is 
lacking  to  a  deplorable  degree. 

It  is  for  this  ideal,  this  sense  of  the  sanitary  and 
educational  value  of  the  home  cosmos,  that  education 
is  demanded,  that  public  sentiment  needs  to  be 
created.  An  insistent  demand  would  soon  produce  a 
variety  of  house  better  suited  to  the  wholesome  living 
which  sanitary  science  demands. 

A  home  means  four  walls  and,  in  this  climate,  a 
roof,  into  however  many  compartments  the  space  so 
enclosed  may  be  divided.  Sanitary  rules  say  that 
the  space  for  each  person  should  be  not  less  than 
300  cubic  feet;  that  light  and  air  shall  have  access 
freely;  that  water  shall  be  freely  supplied  and  quickly 
removed  when  used;  that  the  soil  on  which  the 
structure  stands  shall  be  clean,  dry,  and  porous. 
These  requirements  must  be  met  at  whatever  cost  of 
money  is  necessary  to  procure  them,  and  yet  how 
many  of  the  thousands  of  house-hunters  in  the  cities 


THE  HOUSE.      RENT  OR  VALUE  AND  FURNISHING.   43 

and  towns  ever  think  of  these  things,  or,  if  they  do, 
weigh  them  in  the  balance  with  the  style  of  the  porch, 
the  number  of  bay  windows,  or  with  fashion  as  to 
street  ?  It  is  not  only  in  the  slums  that  there  is  in- 
sufficient air-space.  So  long  as  ignorant  men  and 
women  will  rent  these  closets  under  the  name  of 
rooms,  so  long  builders  will  put  them  up.  So  long 
as  the  dining-room  is  of  less  consequence  than  the 
front  hall,  so  long  will  the  showy  part  of  the  house  be 
emphasized. 

Economy  of  labor  has  not  been  thought  of  in  the 
construction  of  houses.  In  what  other  business  would 
the  coal-supply  be  dumped  on  the  sidewalk  to  be 
shovelled  and  wheeled  into  the  cellar,  only  to  be 
brought  up  again;  the  ashes  carried  down,  only  to  be 
again  brought  up  and  carted  away?  How  few  of  the 
really  valuable  mechanical  appliances  are  found  in  a 
house!  How  little  attention  is  paid  to  the  saving  of 
labor!  The  heaviest  kettles  are  always  on  the  lowest 
shelf,  and  articles  of  daily  use  are  so  placed  as  to 
require  miles  of  travel.  House-architecture  is  fifty 
years  behind  shop-building  and  factory-construction. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  the  ignorance  of  the 
housewife  as  to  what  is  possible,  and  her  traditional 
conservatism,  are  the  causes  for  this  state  of  things. 

The  attention  of  students  of  social  science  should 
not  be  wholly  absorbed  in  the  so-called  tenement- 
house  problem ;   the  needs  of  the  higher-class  wage- 

/  ^     wthk    ^y^ 


44  THE   COST  OF  LIVING. 

earner  should  be  considered,  and  by  this  means  the 
other  object  will  be  soonest  accomplished.  Example 
is  more  powerful  than  precept. 

I  can  think  of  no  greater  missionary  work  possible 
than  that  some  philanthropic  individual  should  offer 
a  competition  in  house-architecture  which  should 
illustrate  the  possibilities  of  modern  science,  unless  it 
might  be  the  offering  of  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on 
the  living  in  such  a  house  to  be  written  by  a  college 
woman  of  five  years*  experience  in  housekeeping. 

A  house  should  be  comfortable  inside,  capable  of 
pleasing  arrangements,  and  so  planned  as  not  to  re- 
quire excess  of  work  to  care  for  it.  Here  is  true 
economy.  The  ideals  and  standards  of  life  are  what 
should  rule. 

A  home  must  mean  more  than  four  walls  and  food: 
it  must  stand  for  one's  self;  it  must  be  an  outer 
garment  as  it  were,  showing  the  taste  and  cultivation 
of  its  occupants. 

Exclusive  of  land,  the  cost  of  housing  with  the 
demands  of  modern  life,  water-supply,  drainage,  hard 
finish,  etc.,  is  about  one  thousand  dollars  per  person, 
or  four  thousand  dollars  for  the  typical  family  of  five. 
It  may  be  halved  or  it  may  be  doubled  in  many 
instances  without  serious  difificulty,  except  in  respect 
to  location.  It  may  be  quartered  or  it  may  be 
quadrupled,  but  these  are  the  two  extremes  of  re- 
quirement.     One    thousand    dollars    will    build    only 


rut  HOUSE.      RENT  OR  VALUE  AND  FURNISHING.   45 

two  rooms  (renting  for  ten  dollars  a  month,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars  a  year)  of  a  tenement,  or 
five  rooms  of  a  suburban  cottage,  giving  a  minimum 
of  light  and  air.  Sixteen  thousand  dollars  should 
build  all  that  any  family  could  use  for  themselves 
alone,  so  far  as  essentials  go.  Of  course  sentiment 
enters  into  rent,  desirable  locality,  and  the  reverse, 
but  too  often  cheapness  means  lack  of  water  and  air 
and  cleanness,  and  dearness  means  bad  taste  in  orna- 
ment or  lavish  expenditure  for  mere  show.  Our 
houses  in  America  are  mere  extension  of  clothes; 
they  are  not  built  for  the  next  generation.  Our 
needs  change  so  rapidly  that  it  is  not  desirable.  It 
is  far  better  to  spend  less  for  the  mere  house  and 
more  for  what  goes  on  in  it — the  real  life. 

Certain  questions  should  be  considered  by  each 
family.  First,  what  is  the  object  of  the  house  ? 
What  are  its  essential  features  ?  There  is  great  need 
of  economic  and  domestic  education  among  architects. 
It  would  be  possible  to  add  beauty  to  most  family 
residences  without  detracting  from  their  utility. 

Second,  what  proportion  of  the  income  should  be 
paid  for  rent  ?  Sufficient  to  secure  the  requirements 
of  health,  even  to  half  the  income.  This  is  not 
necessary  if  the  family  will  avoid  fictitious  values  due 
to  supposed  superiority  of  neighborhood  or  to  mere 
pretension  in  building.  Without  heat  and  light, 
twenty  per  cent  of  any  income  between  five  hundred 


46  THE  COST  OF  LIVING. 

and  five  thousand  dollars  a  year  should  secure  safe 
shelter  for  a  family.  If  it  does  not,  there  is  work  for 
a  social-reform  club  in  that  community  as  well  as  for 
the  board  of  health.  The  fact  that  many  families 
pay  twenty-five  per  cent  is  the  first  evidence  ofj 
unsound  economic  policy,  but  it  may  often  be  inter- 
preted as  a  tribute  to  higher  ideals  provided  the 
increase  here  is  met  by  a  decrease  elsewhere  so  that 
the  sum  total  shall  keep  its  proportion. 

The  needs  of  the  family  should  be  carefully  set 
down  and  the  plan  of  life  in  the  house  made  out 
before  it  is  rented  or  built.  Some  measure  of  privacy 
should  be  secured  to  each  one,  and  yet  there  should 
be  one  common  meeti«g-place.  The  pretentious 
custom  of  a  large  drawing-room  furnished  for  show, 
occupied  only  when  receiving  callers  and  consequently 
in  which  hostess  and  visitors  alike  feel  the  chill  of 
dead  things,  not  the  warmth  of  daily  emotions,  is 
responsible  for  much  of  the  housekeeping  misery  of 
the  time.  Unless  the  family  is  large  enough  and 
with  a  combined  income  amply  sufficient  to  entertain 
frequently,  this  habit  of  keeping  a  large  room  for  a 
possible  wedding  or  a  funeral  is  a  vicious  one.  The 
space  may  be  utilized  for  the  comfort  of  the  family 
in  many  other  ways,  either  in  separate  sleeping-rooms 
or  in  a  large  living-room. 

All  the  mechanical  arrangements  of  this  shelter 
must  be  under  control,  that  is,  they  must  be  under- 


THE  HOUSE.      RENT  OR  VALUE  AND  FURNISHING.   47 

stood  by  the  one  in  charge  of  the  house  in  order  that 
the  cost  of  living  in  the  house  may  not  be  in  great 
excess  of  the  comfort  and  health  resulting.  This  is 
just  as  essential  as  a  knowledge  of  the  machinery  he 
is  to  run  is  for  the  engineer  who  is  obliged  by  law  to 
have  a  license.  If  each  householder  were  obliged  to 
pass  an  examination  on  the  mechanical  arrangements 
of  his  or  her  house  and  show  a  knoA^edge  of  furnace, 
battery,  and  flue  before  being  allowed  to  occupy  it,  a 
cry  of  state  interference  with  private  rights  would  be 
at  once  raised ;  but  in  that  day  when  it  is  clear  that 
the  carelessness  of  men  threatens  to  extinguish  the 
race  it  will  doubtless  be  done. 

The  office  of  the  house  is  ^lot  only  as  shelter  from 
the  elements,  not  only  as  shelter  from  the  curiosity 
and  interference  of  the  outside  world,  but  as  an  ex- 
pression of  the  persons  in  it — of  their  ideals,  tastes, 
education,  and  needs  of  soul  as  well  as  of  body. 

Besides  the  number,  size,  and  arrangement  of  the' 
rooms,  there  is  to  be  considered  the  color  of  the 
walls,  the  harmony  of  decoration,  the  arrangement  of 
the  furniture  and  pictures.  This  is  not  a  matter  of 
little  consequence  or  of  outside  taste.  A  home  is  an 
expression  of  family  ideals,  else  the  place  is  a  board- 
ing-house. That  women  who  are  nominally  at  the 
head  of  households  take  the  ready-made  plans  of 
landlords  and  decorators  and  only  stipulate  that  all 
shall  be  as  stylish  as  Mrs.   So-and-So*s  is  proof  of 


48  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

their  low  ideals  of  what  a  home  means  and  of  their 
unfitness  to  preside  therein.  Ignorance  and  in- 
efificiency  in  the  home  are  not  good  recommendations 
for  the  opposite  characteristics  in  the  business  life  for 
which  they  long. 

In  no  one  item  of  expenditure  is  there  so  much 
room  for  the  exercise  of  ideals,  for  the  development 
of  character,  as  in  this  one  of  providing  the  best  sur- 
roundings for  the  family  life.  In  no  department  are 
knowledge  and  taste  of  so  much  money  value — for  it 
is  not  the  most  expensive  but  the  most  appropriate 
and  harmonious  article  which  is  the  best.  The 
beauty  of  cleanliness  is  not  sufficiently  appreciated 
by  the  ordinary  purchaser.  Here  again  it  is  what 
others  buy  and  not  what  appeals  to  one's  own  need 
that  leads  to  the  spending. of  money  for  a  multitude 
of  articles  which  catch  dust  and  become  grimy  or  else 
require  an  undue  proportion  of  time  in  a  vain  at- 
tempt to  keep  clean. 

It  is  certainly  wiser  to  pay  higher  rent  for  a  modern 
house  than  to  spend  much  on  furnishing  an  old  one; 
and  if  the  house  is  so  finished  as  to  need  little  care, 
there  is  an  additional  gain:  less  paint  to  clean,  fewer 
stairs  to  go  over,  gas  instead  of  coal, — all  these  things 
are  to  be  considered  in  the  total  of  this  part  of  the 
living  expenses. 

If  the  rent  of  a  given  house  is  low  compared  with 
others,  one  of  three  things  is  the  probable  cause — 


THE  HOUSE.      RENT  OR  VALUE  AND  FURNISHING.   49 

undesirable  neighborhood,  an  old  house  out  of  repair, 
or  simply  cheap  construction. 

The  householder  must  balance  well  the  different 
elements  of  the  problem. 

Fashion  should  not  be  allowed  to  rule — only  sani- 
tary conditions  and  moral  health  of  the  children. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  questions  which 
should  be  propounded  by  every  householder: 

Is  the  soil  dry  ? 

Is  the  cellar  dry  and  light  ? 

Are  the  drain-pipes  in  sight  ? 

Are  the  drain-pipes  sound  ? 

Does  the  furnace  or  the  steam-boiler  warm  the 
house  ? 

Has  the  bath-room  an  outside  window  for  sunlight 
and  a  double  door  ? 

Has  every  room  some  means  of  cross-ventilation  ? 

Will  it  be  possible  to  keep  the  rooms  clean  without 
inordinate  work  ?  Is  there  much  cut,  painted,  or 
ornamented  woodwork,  etc.?  Are  there  many  stairs, 
and  inconvenient  ones  ? 

How  many  servants,  if  any,  will  be  needed  for  the 
care  of  the  house  ? 


CHAPTER  V. 

OPERATING  EXPENSES:    FUEL,    LIGHT,  WAGES, 
AND    INCIDENTALS. 

"  Few  women  when  they  assume  the  care  of  a  household 
know  the  exact  value  of  the  household  plant;  the  amount  to 
be  deducted  each  year  for  wear  and  tear ;  the  relative  propor- 
tions expended  annually  for  rent,  fuel,  food,  clothing,  and 
service;  the  number  of  meals  served  and  the  approximate  cost 
of  each  ;  the  amount  of  profit,  waste,  or  unproductiveness  that 
results  from  all  expenditures  made." — Lucy  M.  Salmon. 
"  Enjoyment  depends  on  state  of  mind,  comfort  on  habits." 
"  The  complaint  of  one's  assistants  is  a  boomerang.  It  writes 
the  complainant  down  in  large  letters  as  himself  poorly  fitted 
for  his  responsibilities." 

Having  secured  a  comfortable,  healthful  house  in 
a  satisfactory  locality,  the  daily  life  is  to  be  estab- 
lished in  it.  It  is  to  be  warmed,  lighted,  and  kept 
clean  and  in  repair.  In  short,  it  is  to  be  operated  for 
the  benefit  of  the  family  as  a  railroad  is  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  public;  and  the  same  far-sighted  business 
sense  should  govern  these  expenses  if  the  family  is 
to  find  profit  in  the  life  such  as  the  stockholders  of  a 
well-managed    railroad    secure   as   a    result   of   their 

knowledge. 

50 


OPERATING  EXPENSES.  5 1 

The  ideal  of  health  and  comfort,  mental  as  well  as 
bodily,  should  be  held  constantly  before  the  eye  of  the 
household  manager,  and  no  ignorance  or  parsimony 
ought  to  peril  either.  A  maximum  of  efficiency 
must  be  maintained  at  a  minimum  of  cost. 

The  compartment  of  the  family  purse  from  which 
these  expenses  are  paid  is  usually  like  a  sieve,  retain- 
ing nothing  for  emergencies.  No  portion  of  the 
income  can  bring  so  much  comfort,  and  none  is  so 
difficult  to  expend.  Waste  of  money  elsewhere  is 
compensated  by  crowding  down  the  wages  or  by 
cutting  off  items  small  in  themselves  but  affecting  the 
family  happiness. 

This  department  also  suffers  from  the  lack  of  care 
in  details  which  is  required  to  keep  any  business  at 
its  maximum  efficiency. 

The  present  only  is  considered;  nothing  is  used  as 
if  it  were  to  be  needed  again.  The  common  habit 
of  handing  down  to  the  next  generation  valuable 
heirlooms  having  been  lost,  with  it  has  gone  that 
forethought  in  small  daily  duties  which  preserves  for 
one's  own  use  one's  belongings,  personal  or  house- 
hold. 

It  is  this  carelessness  extending  to  children  and 
servants  which  causes  so  large  an  outlay  for  the 
running  expenses  of  the  house. 

Before  a  purchase  is  made,  the  labor  involved  in 
caring  for  it,  or  in  cooking  it,  should  be  considered. 


52  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

When  a  standard  of  living  is  once  set,  the  cost  ol 
maintaining  that  standard  should  be  considered.  Al 
this  point  our  modern  housekeeping  is  weakest. 
How  much  does  it  cost  to  keep  a  house  of  eight  oi 
of  fourteen  rooms  ? 

How  many  hours  of  efficient  service  are  needed  for" 
a  family  of  five  ? 

How  much  fuel  should  suffice  for  a  suburban  house 
of  twelve  rooms  or  a  city  house  of  the  same  cubic 
contents  with  fourteen  rooms  ? 

The  reader  will  at  once  raise  the  question,  is  this 
not  just  that  individual  freedom,  that  variety  of 
choice  for  which  the  earlier  pages  plead  ?  Are  we  to 
bring  all  our  methods  to  one  measure,  and  is  each  to 
pattern  after  the  same  standards  ?  By  no  means; 
only  each  must  have  his  own  standard  and  ideal  to 
aim  for,  and  must  not  Live  from  hand  to  mouth  as  do 
savages,  or  servilely  copy  one's  neighbor  all  unknow- 
ing of  the  exact  conditions. 

Because  we  acknowledge  that  there  is  more  than 
business  in  the  idea  of  home,  let  us  not  make  the 
mistake  of  assuming  that  there  is  no  business  side  to 
household  affairs. 

No  man  in  his  senses  will  set  up  any  other  manu- 
facturing establishment  with  as  little  regard  to  the 
purpose  of  it  all  and  to  the  future  success  of  its 
operation  as  he  will  allow  in  the  inauguration  of  his 
household. 


OPERATING   EXPENSES.  53 

Light  should  be  regulated  on  hygienic  principles 
as  far  as  possible,  and  should  not,  as  is  often  the  case, 
be  allowed  to  vitiate  the  air  beyond  reason. 

The  way  in  which  ignorance  on  the  part  of  house- 
keepers blocks  social  progress  is  seen  in  the  difference 
between  the  development  of  electric  transportation 
and  domestic  gas  consumption.  The  use  of  gas  for 
fuel  was  proposed  before  the  trolley  line  was  devel- 
oped, but  at  each  step  in  the  introduction  of  gas 
obstacles  due  to  ignorance  of  the  relations  of  heat 
and  of  the  management  of  mechanical  apparatus  have 
so  far  prevented  the  extension  of  this  convenient  and 
economical  fuel.  The  manufacturers  of  domestic 
utensils  have  not  shown  that  grasp  of  scientific  prin- 
ciples which  is  expected  of  other  trades,  and  small 
wonder  that  it  is  words,  not  deeds,  upon  which  they 
rely  to  catch  their  ignorant  customers. 

The  opportunity  for  the  application  of  business 
principles  to  household  management  lies  in  the  strict 
account-keeping  which  will  check  unrestricted  expen- 
diture on  unessentials  to  the  detriment  of  the  funda- 
mental needs.  The  engineer  may  design  and  put  up 
an  entirely  satisfactory  pumping-engine,  but  if  an 
incompetent  man  is  put  in  charge  of  it,  or  a  com- 
petent man  is  allowed  too  little  time  to  look  after  it, 
the  machine  rapidly  deteriorates  and  finally  breaks 
down. 

It  is  a  common  experience  that  after  an  occupation 


54  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

of  a  year  or  two  a  house  becomes  unsanitary,  battered, 
saturated  with  odors  of  cooking,  or  that  on  trial  it 
proves  to  be  inconvenient  for  the  family  h*fe. 

If  all  the  complex  collocation  which  we  call  living 
gave  real  and  lasting  happiness,  we  might  say  that  it 
was  in  the  line  of  evolutionary  progress.  Since  it 
frequently  does  not,  but,  on  the  contrary,  is  produc- 
tive of  discomfort  and  early  death,  why  should  we  not 
consider  the  possibility  of  greater  happiness  through 
simplicity  and  consequent  perfection;  of  greater  sat- 
isfaction through  the.  assurance  that  we  have  used 
our  resources  to  the  best  of  our  ability  ? 

I  am  told  that  the  people  of  culture  in  New 
England  fifty  years  ago  paid  one  third  their  income 
for  rent,  but  the  annual  expenses  of  the  establishment 
were  not  in  proportion  what  they  are  now.  Life  was 
much  simpler,  and  the  actual  amount  of  work  done 
was  far  less.  The  sanitary  requirements  of  to-day 
were  unknown.  The  handsome,  simple  furniture  was 
more  easily  cleaned;  the  dust-catching  bric-a-bric  was 
absent;  the  laundry  work  was  far  less;  and  while  the 
service  of  the  table  was  dignified,  it  was  not  so 
elaborate  as  now. 

There  were  no  telephones,  no  gas,  no  lamps  (most 
time-consuming  in  care),  fewer  callers,  more  true 
hospitality,  few  brass  pipes  to  clean,  on  the  whole  less 
sickness.  We  have  gained  in  conveniences,  but  have 
lost  in  real  ease  and  comfort  of  life.      It  is  true  cer- 


OPERATING   EXPENSES.  55 

tain  comforts  have  greatly  increased:  soft  rugs  have 
replaced  the  sanded  floors;  easy  chairs,  the  straight- 
backed  settle.  But  the  knocker  which  announced  the 
entrance  of  the  visitor  directly  into  the  living-room  is 
replaced  by  the  electric  bell,  which  calls  a  maid  up 
one  flight  of  stairs  to  the  door,  only  to  send  her  up 
another  flight  to  announce  the  caller. 

Has  any  one  ever  calculated  the  foot-pounds  of 
energy  and  the  time  consumed  in  answering  the  door- 
bell and  the  telephone  in  a  modern  house  ?  Has 
any  housekeeper  taken  into  account  her  increased 
demands  as,  year  by  year,  these  calls  increase  ? 

There  is  a  constantly  growing  temptation  to  un- 
necessary expenditure  for  things  small  in  themselves 
and  pleasant  enough,  but  not  worth  while,  as  would 
be  seen  if  any  effort  were  needed  to  obtain  them. 

One  of  the  gravest  objections  to  the  telephone  in  a 
house  is  the  atrophy  of  all  forethought  which  it  per- 
mits. Why  should  careful  account  of  the  larder  or 
work-basket  be  taken  each  morning  if  a  yeast-cake  or 
a  spool  of  thread  may  be  ordered  by  telephone  ? 

Refinement  of  living  has  benefited  by  the  intro- 
duction of  courses  at  meals  instead  of  serving  all  the 
food  at  once,  but  the  cost  in  time  has  been  increased 
by  more  than  the  number  of  courses.  Yet  the 
average  housewife  will  maintain  that  the  expense  is 
no  more. 

Let  us  try  a  readjustment  of  the  different  house- 


56  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

hold  expenses  before  we  give  up  the  maintenance  of 
the  individual  home. 

To-day  it  would  be  suicidal  for  a  young  couple  of 
the  professional  class  or  of  any  class  to  pay  one  third 
of  any  income  between  fifteen  hundred  and  three 
thousand  dollars  for  rent,  because  the  accompanying 
expenses  of  those  things  that  make  modern  life  are 
so  much  greater  than  they  were  fifty  years  ago. 

There  is  so  much  more  moving  about  than  formerly. 
Car-fares  count  up.  The  woman  goes  shopping 
daily;  the  family  go  to  the  park  to  see  the  fireworks. 
The  ice;  the  tax  on  hose  and  faucets;  the  cleaning 
of  the  furnace;  the  cleaning  of  sidewalks, — all  swell 
the  monthly  bills. 

There  is  no  mystery  about  the  increasing  popu- 
larity of  the  apartment  house.  The  trouble  of 
estimating  these  expenses  and  of  making  repairs  is 
shifted  to  the  business  man's  shoulders,  and  the 
woman  has  so  much  the  less  money  to  be  responsible 
for.  For  those  who  are  busy  with  other  duties,  who 
travel  or  who  are  getting  on  in  years  and  who  can 
afford  to  pay  for  relief  from  care,-  a  well-built  apart- 
ment house  may  be  a  blessing,  but  as  a  family  home 
for  children  it  is  a  most  extravagant  luxury,  and  like 
other  luxuries  causes  deterioration  in  the  race. 

Perhaps  we  shall  be  obliged  to  give  up  the  family 
home  for  a  time  in  order  to  find  out  how  much  it  is 
worth,   but  it  would  be  better  for  a  few  intelligent 


OPERATING   EXPENSES.  57 

women  to  first  experiment  scientifically,  in  order  to 
put  the  subject  on  a  practical  basis,  and  then  to 
publish  their  results  for  others  to  study.  A  social 
settlement  for  the  study  of  the  domestic  questions 
pertaining  to  the  life  of  those  whose  incomes  are 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year  would,  I  believe,  be 
more  valuable  than  one  for  the  study  of  the  annual 
expenditure  of  three  hundred  dollars. 

The  reader  will  say  it  all  depends  on  standards. 
True;  but  sanitary  standards  cannot  be  so  far  different 
for  different  towns. 

One  railroad  does  not  differ  so  widely  from  another 
in  cost  of  running  its  cars  that  no  estimates  can  be 
made  from  known  facts. 

How  long  should  it  take  to  clean  a  chamber  or  to 
do  the  chamber-work  of  the  family  of  three  or  five  ? 
It  would  not  be  difficult  to  settle  this  if  women  were 
amenable  to  reason  or  if  they  had  any  training  in 
mechanics,  so  that  they  could  tell  whether  the  person 
were  wasting  time  and  strength  in  passing  to  and  fro 
ten  times  where  once  would  serve. 

The  following  estimates  are  given  for  the  purpose 
of  a  definite  point  of  departure  for  the  study,  which 
the  writer  hopes  and  believes  will  come. 

For  instance,  with  an  annual  expenditure  of  $3000, 
$500  for  rent,  S500  for  wages,  $500  for  operation, 
$700  for  food,  $300  for  clothes,  $500  for  the  higher 
life  may  be  allotted.      If  this  does  not  prove  to  be 


58  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

enough,  then  either  wages  or  food  or  clothes  must  be 
cut  down  or  a  cheaper  house  taken.  In  deciding 
these  problems,  there  is  ample  variety  to  keep  up 
interest  in  life  and  to  prevent  all  persons  from  falling 
to  a  dead  level. 

If  two  teachers,  clerks,  artists,  desire  an  independ- 
ent home  life,  a  place  of  their  own  to  come  to  after 
the  day's  work,  it  is  quite  possible  to  secure  it  in  the 
following  manner: 

Assume  the  income  of  each  to  be  $750  a  year. 
$1500  will  be  the  sum  to  be  expended.  Set  aside  for 
rent  $300,  for  food  $375,  for  service  $150  (since  there 
are  no  children  and  each  will  take  care  not  to  make 
unnecessary  work),  for  clothes  $250,  for  savings  or 
emergency  fund  $200;  leaving  for  travel,  books, 
church,  charity,  lectures,  and  amusement  $225.  The 
last  three  items,  amounting  to  $337.5  dollars  each  or 
45  per  cent  of  the  total  income,  may  be  varied 
according  to  the  individual  choice  without  affecting 
the  other  items. 

The  insistence  on  each  family  living  within  its 
income  and  saving  enough  to  prevent  it  from  becom- 
ing a  state  burden  is  an  ideal  or  a  standard  which 
must  be  cultivated.  The  happy-go-lucky  way  brings 
debt,  disgrace,  and  that  dependence  which  is  debas- 
ing. 

The  ratio  between  rent  and  wages  must  be  made  a 
study  in  economics  interpreted  in  the  Hght  of  sanitary 


OPERATING   EXPENSES*2^£ALlF2^-^59 

science  before  a  rational  settlement  of  the  service 
question  can  be  secured.  And  no  great  advance  in 
housekeeping  can  take  place  until  this  is  done. 

Agricultural  labor  suffers  because  when  a  boy  is 
man-grown  he  receives  man's  wages  whatever  the 
quality  of  his  work.  There  is  no  opportunity  for  dis- 
crimination in  values  and  for  rise  of  wages. 

So  in  house  service  good  work  is  not  appreciated 
or  rewarded,  and  the  same  wages  are  paid  to  a  slow 
or  slovenly  maid  as  are  offered  to  a  quick,  neat  worker. 
No  reward  in  the  way  of  release  from  duty  is  offered 
for  the  quicker  work,  but  only  more  and  often  un- 
necessary work  is  added  in  order  to  fill  the  time,  in 
the  same  spirit  in  which  the  hotel  guest  tries  to  get 
his  money's  worth  by  eating  through  the  bill  of  fare. 

When  the  stage-coach  carried  its  passengers  and 
the  mails  over  dangerous  roads  the  driver  was  per- 
force a  man  of  energy  and  resolution,  of  shrewd 
observation. 

The  horse-car  with  its  guiding  rails  required  less  of 
its  driver,  and  the  position  fell  to  those  who  could  do 
little  else. 

Now  the  electric  motor  has  changed  the  require- 
ments, and  in  the  suburban  motorman  we  find  many 
an  old  stage-driver  and  the  same  type  of  quick-to-act, 
capable  man. 

The  moral  is  plain:  change  the  requirements  of 
household    service   by   inventions    and    arrangements 


6o  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

which  demand  skilled  labor,  and  the  labor  will  come 
to  it. 

The  unexpected  forms  a  large  part  of  life,  the 
larger,  the  more  complicated  it  becomes.  No  good 
manager  is  without  a  fund  to  draw  upon  for  emergen- 
cies. In  the  household,  debt  usually  comes  because 
the  fund  has  not  been  reserved.  This  one  principle 
if  insisted  upon  would  lessen  the  nervous  wear  of 
housekeeping  by  an  incalculable  amount. 

In  many  respects  the  average  housewife  is  yet  a 
savage,  instead  of  the  up-to-date  woman  she  thinks 
herself,  but  in  none  more  than  in  this  failure  to 
estimate  correctly  the  future  possibilities  in  the  small 
household  expenses. 

Dr.  Miinsterberg  maintains  that  the  one  thing  an 
American  does  not  economize  is  time,  and  as  regard 
the  household  I  think  he  is  right. 

There  is  rarely  any  system  by  which  the  maids  are 
taught  to  carry  out  one  thing  when  they  go  for 
another,  to  do  the  thing  first  upon  which  all  the  rest 
depends,  to  accomplish  the  most  for  a  given  number 
of  steps. 

It  will  be  at  once  said,  "  But  they  do  not  wish  to  be 
told,  they  like  to  spend  time  in  trifling."  Possibly; 
but  it  is  human  nature  to  enjoy  results,  to  see  some- 
thing done  and  not  forever  doing. 

My  point  is  that  the  cost  of  living  is  greatly  in- 
creased by  the  neglect  of  the  householder  to  estimate 


I 


OPERATING   EXPENSES.  6 1 

carefully  the  amount  of  time  it  should  require  to 
accomplish  the  end  arrived  at  and  the  waste  at  every 
step  of  the  day's  work.  Until  better  habits,  business 
habits,  are  brought  into  the  household  we  must  allow 
about  twenty  per  cent  excess  over  a  rational  estimate 
in  actual  labor,  and  at  least  as  much  more  for  in- 
efficient labor. 

For  the  ordinary  city  household  where  cosmopoli- 
tan standards  are  adhered  to,  and  where  there  are 
children  and  social  duties,  it  is  estimated  that  the  sum 
paid  for  wages  should  be  one  half  that  paid  for  rent 
or  what  would  be  paid  if  the  house  were  not  owned. 
In  many  cases,  in  fact  in  a  majority  of  houses  renting 
for  three  hundred  to  eight  hundred  dollars  per  year, 
two  thirds  the  rent  is  usual;  and  if  the  mistress  does 
nothing  herself  and  is  not  a  systematic  business 
woman,  the  rule  should  be  that  the  wages  paid  for  all 
the  work  about  the  place,  temporary  as  well  as  per- 
manent, should  be  equal  to  the  rent.  This  may  be 
lessened  in  two  ways — by  greater  simplicity,  or  by 
the  members  of  the  family  sharing  in  the  duties. 

It  is  hoped  that  statistics  may  be  gathered  on  this 
point  as  a  basis  of  confirmation  or  refutation  of  the 
charge  that  too  much  of  the  income  is  spent  on  furni- 
ture and  bric-a-bric  and  too  little  on  the  care  of 
them. 

Sanitary  science  demands  freedom  from  dust,  quick 
removal  of  all  refuse,  and  absolute  cleanliness.      This 


62  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

means  time  and  strength  as  well  as  constant  watchful- 
ness. 

The  other  operating  expenses, — fuel,  lights,  ex- 
press business,  fares,  stationery,  water-tax,  and  news- 
papers,— those  things  that  are  not  permanent,  but  go 
to  make  the  comforts  of  life, — should  be  kept  in 
amount  equal  to  wages,  for  the  more  servants  there  are 
the  more  some  of  these  expenses  will  increase  without 
corresponding  increase  in  satisfaction.  A  large  part 
of  the  present  cost  of  this  class  of  household  expendi- 
ture is  due  to  an  increased  speed  in  running.  In  the 
test  of  the  new  British  cruiser*'  Highflyer"  it  was 
found  that  with  a  speed  of  12 J  knots  per  hour  2135 
horse-power  was  required,  but  when  she  was  run  at 
20.1  knots  the  horse-power  was  10,344,  or  nearly 
five  times  for  an  increase  of  less  than  two  times. 
The  greater  the  speed  the  more  rapid  the  increase. 
For  instance,  it  required  more  coal  to  drive  the 
cruiser  20.1  from  19.4  knots,  an  increase  of  only  .7, 
than  to  drive  her  the  steady  rate  of  12^^  knots.  In 
our  household  life  we  are  living  at  the  rate  of  20 
knots  an  hour,  with  the  consequent  wear  and  tear  on 
the  machinery  and  without  realizing  the  necessity  of 
increased  outlay  if  the  machine  is  to  be  kept  effi- 
cient. 

Much  of  the  expense  complained  of  in  modern 
plumbing  is  caused  by  the  neglect  of  the  most 
obvious  precautions. 


OPERATING   EXPENSES.  63 

In  no  other  department  of  household  life  than  in 
the  care  of  details  is  the  contrast  greater  between  the 
old-fashioned  housewife  and  the  mistress  of  the 
modern  apartment,  and  in  no  other  line  is  there  so 
great  need  of  applied  science, — that  science  which 
cannot  be  learned  from  books,  but  which  women  must 
acquire  or  resign  their  position. 

In  engineering  science  a  careful  study  is  given  to 
reducing  friction  in  order  that  a  given  amount  of 
power  may  yield  the  calculated  force.  In  the  house- 
hold the  **  running  "  of  the  house  is  the  place  where 
the  friction  is  greatest  and  where  it  will  pay  most  to 
give  thought  to  the  reduction  of  the  wear  and  tear. 

In  regard  to  fuel  the  sanitary  view  must  be  the 
first  to  be  taken.  The  house  must  be  so  evenly  and 
thoroughly  heated  as  to  preserve  the  health  of  its 
inmates;  and  since  their  circumstances  vary  as  to  age, 
habits,  occupations,  clothing,  etc.,  each  must  be 
governed  by  these  requirements,  only  there  must  be 
a  recognition  of  these  needs  and  not  an  ignoring  of 
them.  The  heating-plant  is  the  heart  of  the  house 
for  eight  or  nine  months  of  the  year,  and  must  be 
looked  after  by  the  most  intelligent  and  responsible 
person  in  the  house, — one  who  understands  the  chem- 
istry of  combustion  and  the  mechanics  of  draft.  The 
coal-bill  might  be  reduced  by  one  half  in  most  house- 
holds and  the  health  doubly  secured  under  these  cir- 
cumstances. 


64 


THE   COST  OF   LIVING. 


One  hundred  dollars  should  be  ample  for  heating 
a  house  which  rents  for  a  thousand  dollars,  and  two 
thirds  that  sum  for  one  which  rents  for  five  hundred 
dollars.  The  tenement  at  twenty  dollars  a  month 
should  be  made  comfortable  with  twenty-five  dollars 
a  year. 


I 


CHAPTER    VI. 
FOOD. 

"  Half  the  cost  of  life  is  the  price  of  food."— Atkinson. 

"  Wherefore  do  ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread, 
and  your  labor  for  that  which  satisfieth  not  ?  " — Isaiah  Iv.  2. 

"  Courage,  cheerfulness,  and  a  desire  to  work  depends  mostly 
on  good  nutrition." — MOLESCHOTT. 

"The  removal  of  the  predisposition  to  disease  is  the  most 
thorough-going  way  of  making  all  infectious  disease  impos- 
sible."—Hueppe. 

Not  all  other  influences  put  together  can  equal 
in  profound  effect  upon  the  welfare  of  the  household 
that  exercised  by  food  and  the  attitude  of  mind 
regarding  it.  The  well-nourished  child  is  a  happy, 
strong  little  animal,  making  brain  and  muscle  and 
nerve  for  future  use.  The  well-nourished  adult  is  a 
hearty,  efficient  member  of  society,  contributing  his 
share  to  the  common  stock  of  public  good  as  well  as 
enjoying  his  own  work  and  pleasure.  There  is  little 
fear  of  disease  for  either  child  or  man,  since  the  best 
prophylactic  is  a  generous  store  of  blood-corpuscles 
both  red  and  white.  The  human  body  in  normal 
condition  has  a  well-drilled  army  of  "phagocytes" 

(white  blood-corpuscles  or  leucocytes)  to  which  the 

65 


66  THE  COST   OF  LIVING. 

man  needs  to  give  no  directions.  But  if  he  neglects 
to  take  suitable  food  or  to  keep  himself  warm,  if  he 
becomes  frightened  or  takes  drugs,  his  faithful  army 
is  paralyzed  and  the  enemy  finds  easy  entrance.  The 
condition  of  this  army,  like  that  of  any  other,  depends 
on  its  commissariat.  If  the  food-supply  is  just  right, 
the  soldiers  are  vigorous;  if  it  is  wrong  in  any  partic- 
ular, they  are  weakened.  Nothing  can  take  the  place 
of  food  in  the  human  economy.  Therefore  the  poor 
man  is  justified  in  spending  two  thirds  of  his  income, 
if  need  be,  for  food.  But  over-nutrition  is  as  danger- 
ous as  under-nutrition.  The  protecting  army  may 
be  incapacitated  by  indulgence  in  food,  may  be 
poisoned  by  ptomaines  or  narcotized  by  alcohol  or 
tobacco.  The  body  tissues  may  become  weakened 
under  the  strain  of  excess,  and  irritability,  disease,  and 
death  may  follow.  Food  habits  should  be  formed  by 
young  children  under  careful  guidance.  Until  there 
is  a  generation  which  is  well  trained  in  this  matter 
very  little  progress  in  the  use  of  food  as  a  means  of 
securing  human  efficiency  can  be  made.  So  long  as 
food  is  looked  upon  either  as  a  disagreeable  necessity 
or  as  a  means  of  merely  sensuous  pleasure  the  child 
will  grow  up  with  whims  and  fancies  which  will  pre- 
vent the  best  physical  development. 

For  the  human  race  as  a  whole  it  has  been  shown 
that  at  least  half  the  cost  of  life  is  the  cost  of  food. 
Food  is  the  essential  condition  of  life,  and  the  race 


I 


FOOD.  (ij 


instincts  in  regard  to  it  are  so  fundamental  that  as  a 
rule  only  stress  of  circumstances  affects  any  sudden 
change.  The  growth  of  new  food  habits  is  a  gradual, 
almost  an  imperceptible  one  in  all  nationalities,  be- 
cause of  that  instinct  of  self-preservation  by  avoidance 
of  the  unknown  which  was  essential  in  the  early  stages 
of  race  development.  Only  since  knowledge  has 
replaced  instinct,  and  readiness  of  adaptation  to 
environment  has  produced  cosmopolitan  man,  can 
there  be  said  to  exist  a  science  of  nutrition  which  has 
been  founded  on  a  study  of  the  food  habits  of  a  great 
variety  of  peoples  under  a  great  variety  of  circum- 
stances and  on  the  results  of  experimental  feeding  of 
animals. 

As  a  result  of  these  studies  it  may  be  briefly  stated 
that  a  condition  of  complete  nutrition  should  be 
aimed  at  but  not  overstepped.  It  is  the  belief  of 
most  students  of  economics  and  sociology  that  it 
is  the  overfed  among  the  nine  tenths  not  sub- 
merged who  are  being  eliminated  by  the  various  dis- 
eases of  modern  life, — apoplexy,  heart-disease, 
Bright's  disease,  etc., — and  that  the  sterility  of  the 
better-placed  portion  of  the  community  is  largely  due 
to  the  plethora  of  food  and  drink  which  induces 
the  eating  of  more  than  the  system  can  stand  and 
vitality  is  consequently  reduced.  ""  Our  appetites 
are  stronger  than  they  need  to  be  under  existing  con- 
ditions." 

v*^  OF  THE  ^ 

UNIVERSITY 


68  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

Unless  some  form  of  restraint  is  imposed  in  place 
of  that  asceticism  and  frugality  with  which  religious 
ideals  safeguarded  the  more  intelligent  classes  in  the 
past,  the  present  type  is  likely  to  die  out  and  *'  a 
more  primitive  man  will  come  forward  to  try  anew 
to  solve  the  problem  of  the  highest  civilization." 

Self-evident  propositions  may  be  stated  as  follows: 

Food  is  that  which  supplies  the  body  with  such 
substances  as  are  necessary  to  preserve  it  in  health 
and  to  supply  it  with  energy  for  daily  work  or  play. 

Food  materials  as  a  whole  should  contain  those 
substances  in  sufficient  quantities  and  in  suitable 
proportions. 

Food  materials  should  not  contain  anything  in- 
jurious, nor  be  so  prepared  as  to  develop  any  injurious 
qualities. 

Food  materials  should  not  be  so  stored  or  packed 
as  to  produce  by  their  decomposition  any  secondary 
substances  which  are  in  the  least  degree  detrimental.* 

Good  health  is  essential  to  efficient  production  of 
energy  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  good  things  of 
this  world. 

Standards  of  living  must  include  the  idea  of  effi- 
ciency if  man  is  to  live  up  to  his  opportunities. 

Food  is  not  only  the  workingman's  capital,  it  is 
the  cultivated  man's  bank-account. 

*  In  addition,  the  mode  of  preparation,  combination,  and  serv- 
ing should  be  such  as  to  increase  the  enjoyment  of  the  food  with- 
out rendering  it  less  suitable  for  its  purpose. 


I 

I 


FOOD.  69 

It  is  because  I  believe  in  the  possibility  of  control 
of  even  economic  conditions  by  ideals  firmly  held  by 
a  sufficient  number  of  fathers  and  mothers  (who  alone, 
according  to  Patten,  count  for  much  in  race  progress) 
that  I  urge  so  strongly  the  dissemination  of  what 
scientific  knowledge  we  have,  and  the  importance  of 
gaining  yet  more  facts  about  food  and  its  part  in 
human  welfare 

The  moment  when  a  family  is  released  from  the 
bondage  of  race  instincts  and  habits  as  to  food,  in 
that  moment  danger  begins  for  them.  Unrestrained 
appetite  in  this  as  in  other  directions  leads  to  loss  of 
efficiency;  therefore  education  must  come  to  the 
rescue. 

If  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man,  then  the 
study  of  that  which  makes  him  a  capable,  efficient 
member  of  society  and  not  a  wretched  dyspeptic  or  a 
shell  of  walking  contagion  is  worthy  a  place  in  any 
curriculum. 

In  no  other  department  of  household  expenditure 
is  there  so  great  an  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of 
knowledge  and  skill  with  so  good  results  for  pocket 
and  health.  No  item  of  expense  is  so  fully  under 
individual  control.  The  house  stands  out  for  every 
one  to  see.  Clothes  are  scrutinized  and  commented 
upon;  if  attempt  is  made  to  economize  in  fuel,  light, 
and  wages,  it  is  sure  to  leak  out  and  be  put  down  to 
a  niggardly  soul.     But  in  most  families  there  is  ample 


70  THE  COST  OF  LIVING. 

margin  in  food  from  which  to  take  a  respectable  sHce 
without  harming  any  one.  If  the  family  is  a  close 
corporation,  no  one  will  be  the  wiser  for  the  time  and 
thought  which  the  mistress  puts  into  an  aesthetic  as 
well  as  nutritious  table.  If  the  typical  servant  is 
required  to  follow  the  same  plan,  she  will  probably 
rebel  and  give  warning  rather  than  live  with  a  mistress 
who  measures  the  sugar  and  counts  the  potatoes,  so 
hopelessly  wasteful  have  our  habits  become. 

It  is  not  the  food  actually  eaten  that  costs  so  ex- 
cessively, it  is  that  wasted  by  poor  cooking,  by  exces- 
sive quantity,  and  by  purchase  out  of  season  when 
the  price  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  value.  Good 
judgment  as  to  the  amounts  to  be  prepared,  as  to  the 
harmony  of  the  meal,  the  blend  of  flavor;  as  to  the 
right  appetizers;  and  good  humor  and  cheerful  con- 
versation, with  the  most  attractive  setting  and  perfect 
serving,  will  cut  down  the  cost  of  almost  any  table  one 
half.  Many  seem  to  hold  the  idea  that  hospitality 
requires  the  setting  of  a  double  portion  before  the 
guests,  and  this  alone  doubles  the  cost  of  food  in  some 
families.  It  may  be  rightly  said  that  the  knowledge 
of  this  perfect  table  involves  expensive  training  on 
the  part  of  the  mother  or  mistress,  and  that  it  will  be 
cheaper  for  the  family  to  go  to  a  hotel  where  the 
chef,  IS  paid  to  do  this  for  a  thousand  people.  True, 
this  is  what  a  large  number  of  American  citizens 
think,  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  increased  death-rate 


FOOD.  71 

and  the  alarming  prevalence  of  nervous  breakdowns 
and  insanity  we  might  allow  the  mere  economic  con- 
ditions to  rule.  But  there  is  another  side:  fancies 
and  flavors'and  combinations  may  be  better  provided 
for  by  one  who  has  had  long  experience  of  the  tastes 
of  the  family  than  by  the  chef  \vho  suits  the  average 
of  a  thousand.  Also  the  health  and  manners  of 
children  may  be  more  carefully  watched  at  home. 
And  if  bright  faces  and  merry  hearts  gather  about 
the  home  table  in  fresh  cool  air,  sweet  with  the 
favorite  flowers,  will  not  the  quiet,  the  restful  atmos- 
phere soothe  the  tired  nerves  more  than  the  strange 
faces,  the  glare  of  lights,  the  rattle  of  dishes  of  the 
restaurant  or  well-ordered  bote' — even  though  the 
noise  is  drowned  in  music  ? 

In  sociological  work  is  it  not  considered  a  great 
step  when  a  family  is  persuaded  to  gather  as  a  unit 
about  the  table  instead  of  each  taking  from  the 
bakeshop  or  the  cupboard  that  which  will  serve  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together  ?  No  other  symbol  of 
comfort  and  well-being  has  been  so  universal  as  the 
family  table,  and  yet  many  intelligent  women  are 
advocating  a  reversion  to  primitive  ways,  thus  doing 
away  with  a  civilizing  agency. 

The  home  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  an  eating- 
house,  as  a  laundry,  as  a  sleeping-place;  it  is  the 
school  of  life,  and  anything  which  renders  it  more 
efficient  is  worth  paying  for.      The  cost  in  money  or 


72  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

time  is  not  to  be  for  a  moment  grudging!)'  cut  down. 
What  if  the  parents  spend  all  they  can  earn,  is  it  not 
well  invested  in  the  next  generation  ?  The  cost  of 
living  must  be  measured  by  the  results  in  flesh  and 
blood  and  brain,  not  in  houses  and  lands.  Hence  we 
say:  the  ideals  toward  which  the  family  is  striving 
come  first  into  discussion  before  the  expenditure  can 
be  rightly  judged.  The  home  is  for  the  children,  not 
merely  for  their  nutrition,  but  for  development  of 
character;  and  that  must  be  the  only  criterion  of  its 
true  economic  value,  not  in  dollars  and  cents,  but  in 
the  character  of  the  men  and  women  which  are  the 
product  of  the  homes  just  as  truly  as  the  cloth  is  of 
the  loom.  And  it  is  this  point  of  view  which  must 
justify  the  maintenance  of  the  small  group,  which  we 
call  the  family,  as  the  unit  of  the  social  state. 

Everything  about  the  home  must  be  judged  by  its 
bearing  on  character.  An  experienced  charity-worker 
objected  to  the  New  England  Kitchen  on  the  ground 
that  she  could  not  replace  the  educational  and  dis- 
ciplinary value  of  cooking  for  her  poor  women. 

It  is  in  the  deeper  meaning  that  excuse  must  be 
found  for  keeping  up  the  custom  of  eating  at  home, 
for  it  cannot  be  justified  on  economic  grounds.  The 
family  table  is  an  educational  factor  of  greatest  im- 
portance to  the  children.  There,  as  nowhere  else, 
are  inculcated  the  virtues  of  self-control,  self-denial, 
regard  for  others,  good  temper,  good  manners,  pleas- 


FOOD.  73 

ant  speech.  The  children's  table  presided  over 'by 
the  ignoiant  maid  and  the  hurried  service  of  the 
adult  has  much  to  answer  for  in  modern  life. 

Whatever  it  may  cost,  however  uneconomic  it  may 
seem, — in  the  wider  view  of  the  aim  of  all  living,  let 
us  keep  the  family  table  even  if  much  that  is  set  upon 
it  comes  from  outside;  enough  should  remain  to 
permit  of  its  educational,  aesthetic,  and  ethical  value. 

When  housekeeping  is  reorganized  on  a  business 
basis  the  present  waste  and  drudgery  and  dirt  in  the 
house-kitchen  will  be  abolished,  and  along  with  the 
soap-making  will  go  the  soup-  and  bread-making — 
the  heavy  kettles  and  greasy  dishes.  The  cleaning 
of  fowls,  the  trimming  of  vegetables  will  be  done  out 
of  the  house,  and  that  bete  noir^  the  garbage-pail  will 
be  reduced  to  manageable  dimensions.  More  refined 
ways  of  doing  the  necessary  tasks  will  make  the  work 
a  pleasure  and  yet,  as  I  believe,  will  keep  the  family 
circle  intact. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  relegating  food 
to  the  realm  of  mere  necessities,  but  I  do  maintain 
that  the  relation  of  the  food-supply  to  health  must 
not  be  overlooked  or  thrust  out  of  sight. 

The  difference  between  food  as  an  animal  need  and 
as  a  source  of  pleasure  as  well  may  be  likened  to  that 
other  process  of  combustion  and  source  of  heat,  the 
fire  on  the  hearth.  The  black  air-tight  stove  gave 
the  necessary  heat  and  was  more  economical  of  fuel 


\ 


74  THE   COST  OF   LIVING. 

than  the  wood-fire  against  the  chimney-back,  but  with 
the  latter  comes  a  sense  of  cheer,  of  companionship, 
of  worship,  that  is  worth  all  it  costs. 

It  is  this  same  sense  of  pleasurable  comfort,  of  an 
actual  accession  of  strength,  which  is  given  by  a  suit- 
able meal  in  a  harmonious  setting. 

As  the  useful  heat  of  the  fire  is  not  wanting,  how- 
ever great  its  beauty,  so  the  useful  ^lel-value  of  the 
food  must  be  considered  under  all  the  accessories. 
There  is  here  the  additional  variable,  the  power  of  the 
body  to  utilize  the  bountiful  gift.  The  very  charm 
of  the  surroundings  helps  to  this  provided  there  is 
not  positive  harm  in  the  ingredients  or  their  com- 
bination. , 

Much  of  the  present  cost  of  food  is  in  the  exceed- 
ing cleanliness  necessary  in  dealing  with  the  animal 
foods  which  are  so  liable  to  harmful  changes. 

The  right  attitude  of  mind  toward  food  will  make 
its  choice,  preparation,  and  serving  that  which  in 
earlier  times  it  was — a  worship, — and  the  office  that 
of  a  priestess.  It  was  not  by  chance  that  so  many 
religious  rites  were  connected  with  eating. 

It  served  to  impress  the  importance  of  the  right 
view  of  food  upon  primitive  peoples. 

It  is  just  as  wrong  to  ignore  food  or  to  hold  it  of 
little  value  as  to  consider  it  too  much.  The  health 
of  the  human  body  means  sufficient  food  if  the  indi- 
vidual is  to  do  his  or  her  work  in  the  world. 


I 


FOOD.  75 

Mrs.  Bosanquet  writes:  ''  Women  are  supposed  to 
be  able  to  live  on  a  much  less  wage  than  men  of  the 
same  social  standing,  and  this  is  largely  because  they 
accept  a  much  lower  standard  of  living.  That  is, 
they  are  content  with  less  food,  less  comfort,  narrower 
interests,  and  less  recreation ;  and  this  reacts  through 
their  impaired  vitality  by  making  them  less  efificient. 
*  The  woman  ].ieeds  less  *  it  is  always  argued  as  a 
reason  for  woman's  lower  wages,  but  she  needs  less 
only  in  the  sense  that  it  costs  less  to  maintain  a  low 
physical  standard  than  a  high  one." 

Bullock"^  says  there  are  five  ways  in  which  fully 
one  fifth  the  money  expended  for  food  is  absolutely 
wasted,  while  the  expenditure  often  fails  to  provide 
adequate  nutriment.  In  this  manner  ten  per  cent  of 
the  income  is  squandered  in  — 

1.  Needlessly  expensive  material,  providing  littl; 
nutrition. 

2.  A  great  deal  thrown  away. 

3.  Bad  preparation. 

4.  Failure  to  select  rightly  according  to  season. 

5.  Badly  constructed  ovens. 

This  waste  if  checked  would  give  an  increase  of 
income  which  would  appreciably  lift  the  family  to  a 
higher  plane  of  efificient  life. 

I  am  so  often  asked  for  definite  menus  and  for  a 
list  of  articles  of  food  which  can  serve  a  family  for  a 
*  Economics. 


"J^  THE  COST  OF   LIVING. 

given  sum  that  I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  is  very  little  knowledge  as  to  what  good  food  is 
or  what  it  costs;  that  the  decision  as  to  what  to 
furnish  to  the  table  rests  upon  what  other  persons  are 
known  to  buy  rather  than  on  any  individual  judg- 
ment. This  is  either  childish  imitation  or  foolish 
following  of  fashion. 

Even  the  writers  of  cook-books  and  teachers  of  cook- 
ing have  too  often  followed  instead  of  led  the  public. 

Scientific  investigation  is  needed  in  this  respect  as 
much  as  in  any  other.  Before  we  can  make  definite 
statements  we  must  have  definite  knowledge.  Most 
of  the  work  done  by  the  United  States  Government 
has  been  among  those  supposed  to  waste  most  in  food 
materials,  those  with  an  income  less  than  five  hundred 
dollars.  What  is  more  needed  is  information  as  to 
\vhat  it  costs  to  live  well  for  a  family  with  fifteen 
hundred  to  three  thousand  dollars  a  year;  for  health- 
ful,  appetizing  food  at  a  sum  not  exceeding  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  income. 

When  we  get  budgets  from  a  large  number  of  these 
families  we  shall  be  able  to  formulate  much  better 
than  now  the  rules  for  the  expenditure  of  this  part  of 
the  income. 

Extensive  studies  of  the  composition  of  food  ma° 
terials  and  of  the  amounts  consumed  by  man  under 
widely  differing  conditions  show  that  sufficient  raw 
food   material   for  health  and   production   of   energy 


FOOD.  77 

may  be  secured  anywhere  in  America  within  reach  of 
a  railroad  for  nine  to  ten  cents  per  day  per  person, 
provided  the  appetite  is  strong  and  natural  and  not 
influenced  by  whimsical  fancies.  Thirteen  to  fifteen 
cents  furnishes  good  fare  for  intelligent  workmen 
whose  wives  understand  both  buying  and  cooking,  and 
also  serves  for  large  establishments  kept  at  public 
expense,  such  as  prisons  and  almshouses. 

Eighteen  to  twenty-five  cents  per  day  per  person 
is  the  most  which,  according  to  our  estimates  in 
Chapter  III,  should  be  spent  by  those  whose  incomes 
are  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars  per  year. 
And  the  knowledge  now  available  for  the  housewife 
will  allow  her  to  do  this  satisfactorily,  provided 
that  the  aims  of  the  family  rise  above  the  pleasures 
of  the  palate. 

This  sum  is  sufificient  for  collections  of  three 
hundred  to  five  hundred  persons  under  one  roof, — 
schools,  hospitals,  and  institutions  supported  by 
charity, — again  provided  that  the  right  spirit  of 
cooperation  exists  and  that  a  scientific  attitude  of 
mind  can  be  maintained. 

Twenty-eight  to  thirty  cents  is  the  maximum  limit 
for  such  institutions  and  for  families  who  are  eager 
for  the  higher  pleasures  of  living  and  have  not  money 
enough  for  both. 

Thirty-five  to  forty  cents  spent  with  discretion  is 
ample  for  colleges,  paying  hospitals,  private  schools, 


78  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

and  private  families  if  the  purveyor,  cook,  and  serv- 
ing maid,  each  and  all,  do  their  duty  after  they  are 
furnished  with  the  proper  appliances. 

Only  when  the  income  of  a  family  of  five  indi- 
viduals, including  servants,  rises  above  four  thousand 
dollars  a  year  should  an  expenditure  of  fifty  cents 
per  day  per  person  for  raw  food  materials  be  looked 
upon  with  complacency,  unless  the  momentary  pleas- 
ures of  the  palate  are  preferred  to  the  lasting  pleasure 
of  health  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  higher  nature. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
aesthetic  value  of  the  table  cannot  be  realized  unless 
the  highest  intelligence  in  the  house  makes  it  his  or 
her  care.  I  must  say  that  some  of  the  most  perfect 
examples  I  know  are  those  in  which  the  man  of  the 
house  **  puts  his  mind  on  it."  I  believe  it  would  be 
greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  health  and  happiness 
of  the  world  if  this  part  of  the  housekeeping  were  for 
a  time  done  by  men,  for  then  they  would  systematize 
it  as  they  have  systematized  the  various  industrial 
pursuits  which  were  once  household  occupations. 

The  difficulty  would  be  that  they  would  not  be 
satisfied  with  the  economic  waste  of  using  as  much 
effort  and  time  to  prepare  food  for  four  as  is  needed 
for  fourteen  or  forty,  and  the  common  dining-room 
would  prevail. 

The  American  woman  has  been  much  slower  than 
the    American    man    to    grasp    the    meaning    of    the 


FOOD.  79 

proper  setting  by  which  to  increase  the  enjoyment  of 
food.  The  club  table  is  often  a  model  feast,  while, 
since  she  no  longer  cooks  the  meal  herself,  the  house- 
wife has  washed  her  hands  of  all  care  for  the  essentials 
and  wasted  her  energy  on  the  foolish  abundance  of 
entries,  sweets,  and  bon-bons;  she  has  not  learned 
to  keep  the  air  of  her  dining-room  cool  and  fresh  and 
has  not  taken  pains  to  make  the  meal  an  intelligent 
feast;  above  all,  she  has  not  trained  the  children  to 
eat  for  life  and  health,  but  allowed  them  to  sacrifice 
both  to  mere  habit  and  whim.  As  a  result  her  ex- 
penses art  large,  her  health  poor,  her  children  peevish, 
her  husband  makes  any  excuse  to  dine  at  his  club, 
and  she  longs  to  give  up  housekeeping  and  board. 

Most  of  the  women  who  have  written  upon  house- 
hold economics  have  shown  how  smoothly  life  would 
run  if  there  were  no  kitchens,  and  have  advocated 
caravansaries  where  a  common  dining-room  should 
serve  as  an  amusement-hall. 

If  it  were  only  the  drudgery  of  preparing  the  three 
meals  a  day,  this  would  be  a  safe  solution,  but  the 
eflRciency  of  the  individual  depends  almost  entirely 
on  his  food.  It  matters  little  whether  his  house  has 
a  Gothic  window  or  a  Mansard  roof,  whether  the 
lining  of  his  coat  is  of  silk  or  of  cotton,  as  to  the 
number  of  miles  he  can  walk  or  ride,  or  the  business 
he  can  transact,  but  it  does  matter  whether  he  is  able  to 
extract  the  full  number  of  calories  from  his  breakfast. 


8o  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 


Let  food  and  its  accessories  be  once  established  on 
a  standard  of  health  which  means  latent  power,  and 
not  upon  fashion,  and  the  college  president  will  be 
no  longer  able  to  include  cooking  with  millinery  in 
the  same  ignoble  category. 

The  dressmaker  and  the  milliner  are  chosen  with 
great  care,  and  many  visits  are  made  to  the  shops  to 
select  fabrics  and  trimmings;  but  the  cook  who  is 
responsible  for  the  upbuilding  and  preservation  of  the 
body  is  chosen  haphazard  and  th.e  food  ordered  by 
telephone.  • 

Not  until  it  is  generally  known  how  much  the  food 
has  to  do  with  human  welfare  will  it  receive  the 
attention  it  merits. 

Let  the  housewife  once  grasp  this  idea  and  she  will 
fit.  herself  to  o»rry  it  out. 

Let  the  young  woman  who  has  longed  for  a  career 
in  medicine  turn  her  attention  to  keeping  sickness 
away,  and  so  devote  herself  to  bringing  up  the  sum 
total  of  human  happiness. 

Patten  says:  **  We  now  have  a  fair  chance  to  test 
the  theory  of  the  dominant  influence  of  scientific 
habits  of  thought  on  public  opinion.  Dyspepsia  is 
becoming  prevalent.  A  dyspeptic  is  in  the  same  un- 
certainty with  regard  to  the  effect  of  what  he  eats 
that  the  primitive  man  was  in  regard  to  his  ability  to 
get  something  to  eat.  The  result  is  the  same — a 
victim  of  superstitious  fancies  and  a  user  of  nostrums. 


^ 


*'   (  •JN1VER5XTY 

If  all  men  became  dyspeptics,  superstition  would  be 
as  rife  as  it  was  in  the  middle  ages."  The  race  is  to 
be  helped,  not  by  argument,  but  by  a  relief  from  dis- 
ease, and  this  sanitary  science  is  trying  to  accomplish 
even  against  the  will  of  the  victims. 

The  following  table  taken  from  No.  i6  of  the 
Rumford  Kitchen  Leaflets  rpay  be  helpful  to  those 
desiring  to  study  the  cost  of  food. 

TABLE  I. 
FOOIi  SUBSTANCES  RICH   IN 


b 


Nitrogen, 

Starch. 

•Fat. 

Cheese 

Rice 

Cheese 

Beans 

Wheat 

Meats 

Peas 

Corn 

Eggs 

Eggs 

Oats 

Milk 

Meats 

Barley 

Corn 

Milk 

Rye 

Oats 

Beans 

Wheat 

Peas 

Rye 

Potatoes 

Barley 

Sugars. 

Salts, 
^ Acids,  Flavors. 

Molasses 

Syrups 

Preserves 

Vegetables 

Fruits 

Green  Relishes 

Fruits 

Condiments 

TABLE  n. 
FOOD   MATERIALS  IN   RELATION  TO   COST. 


For  S   to   IS  cents  per  For  ij  to  jo  cents  per        For  jo  to  loo  cents  fer 

person,    dailv,    the  food       person,    daily,    the   food    person,    daily,    the   food 
may  be  choset^froin  may  he  chose  ti  from  may  be  chosen  from 

Potatoes  Beef  and  Mutton  or  any    Choice  cuts  of  Beef,  Mut- 

Rye  Meal  meat  not  over  25  cents        ton,  or  other  meals 

Corn  Meal  per  pound  Chickens 

Wheat  Flour  Wheat  Bread  (purchased     Green  Vegfetables,  Garden 

Barley  at  the  baker's)  Stuff,  and  Vegetables  out 

Oats  Suet  of  season 

Peas  Butter  Preserves 

Beans  Whole  Milk  Confections 

Salt  Codfish  Cheese  '  Cakes 

Halibut  Nape  Dried  Fruits  Tea 

Any  meat  with  little  bone,  Cabbage  and  other  vege-    Coffee 

at  5  cents  per  pound  tables  in  their  season 

Oleomargarine  Sugar 

Skimmed  Milk  Fish 

Bacon 
Some  Fruits  in  their  season 


CHAPTER    VII. 
CLOTHING  IN  RELATION  TO  HEALTH. 

"The  pursuit  of  things  fashionable  for  the  sole  reason  that 
they  are  fashionable  is  not  an  exalted  occupation  and  is,  indeed, 
I  think  a  somewhat  sheeplike  attribute.— Frederick  Treves. 

"  One  of  the  strongest  human  wants  is  the  society  of  one's 
fellows."— Bullock. 

The  cost  of  the  clothing,  like  that  of  the  house, 
depends  more  often  upon  what  impression  it  is 
desired  to  make  upon  the  outside  world  than  upon 
the  true  ofifice  of  clothing,  namely,  to  preserve  the 
health  by  protecting  the  body  from  sudden  changes 
of  temperature.  Whatever  may  be  the  cut  and  color 
of  the  outside  layer,  the  real  garments  should  fulfil 
this  requirement,  and  the  money  necessary  to  secure 
this  should  not  be  used  for  other  purposes. 
I  In  our  present  views  as  to  the  nature  and  causes  of 
disease,  temperature  plays  an  important  role. 

We  believe  that  a  well-nourished  body  kept  at  its 
normal  temperature  is  exceedingly  resistent  to  if  not 
proof    against    ordinary    forms    of    disease.       Bodily 

temperature  is  chiefly  maintained  by  food  and  cloth- 

82 


CLOTHING   IN   RELATION  TO   HEALTH.  83 

ing,  and  the  one  supplements  the  other.  The  one 
furnishes  fuel,  and  the  other  saves  it. 

Insufficient  food  or  insufficient  clothing  may  permit 
of  a  lowering  of  the  temperature  of  a  part  or  all  of 
the  body  so  that  disease  may  gain  a  foothold. 

The  first  office  of  clothing,  hygienically  speaking, 
is  to  furnish  an  outer  layer  over  the  body  skin  which 
shall  protect  that  organ,  made  delicate  by  generations 
of  protection,  from  sudden  changes  of  temperature, 
so  sudden  as  not  to  give  the  stored  food-supply  time 
to  respond  to  the  stimulus.  It  is  evident  that  this 
layer  should  be  spread  evenly  over  the  skin,  and  so 
lightly  as  not  to  interfere  with  free  bodily  movement, 
and  that  it  should  be  quite  pervious  to  air,  since  the 
skin  is  more  than  covering  and  has  offices  to  perform 
in  the  body  economy  akin  to  those  of  lungs  and 
kidneys.  It  is  not  the  insufficiently  dressed  person 
who  catches  cold,  but  the  superabundantly  dressed. 

And  yet  direct  access  of  cold  air  should  be  pre- 
vented upon  such  exposed  blood-vessels  as  occur  at 
wrists  and  knees. 

Recent  experiments  indicate  that  several  layers  of 
different  substances  and  a  loosely  woven  texture  are 
most  advantageous. 

Love  of  display,  of  that  color  which  will  attract 
attention,  is  an  instinct  inherited  from  our  savage 
ancestors.  An  attribute  of  the  early  man,  it  has  in 
the  course  of  evolution  reached  the  woman.     As  was 


84  THE   COST  OF   LIVING. 

natural  when  women  were  left  without  the  home 
industries  which  served  as  absorbing  occupations  for 
them,  they  began  to  turn  their  attention  to  themselves 
and  to  allow  free  play  to  an  untrained  fancy  in  the 
clothing  of  themselves  and  their  families.  With  the 
factory  cheapening  fabrics  and  becoming  unscrupulous 
in  the  use  of  evanescent  dyes,  nearly  all  articles  of 
clothing  used  for  outside  display  have  degenerated, 
and  waste  of  money  in  this  direction  by  those  who 
need  it  for  other  things  has  become  shocking.  No 
other  form  of  sense  gratification  seems  such  a  mania 
with  women;  their  freedom  from  household  occupa- 
tion has  certainly  not  been  well  used  for  the  most 
part.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  a  woman  who  has 
sacrificed  the  well-being  of  herself  and  her  family  to 
a  love  of  display. 

Here  again  the  school  must  come  to  the  rescue  and 
prevent  the  next  generation  from  making  the  same 
mistake. 

The  argument  is  used  that  it  makes  business  to 
cater  to  this  mania;  but  it  were  better  that  business 
should  not  be  made  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the 
few  than  that  the  many  should  have  their  ideals 
debased. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  morality  of  a  factory 
for  the  making  of  idols  for  sale  in  the  East,  or  of 
printing  cloths  of  barbarous  designs  and  color  for 
savage  islanders  under  the  pleas  that  they  want  them 


CLOTHING   IN   RELATION   TO    HEALTH.  85 

and  will  have  no  other,  in  a  civih'zed  country  those 
who  cater  to  the  wants  of  its  own  citizens  should  be 
forced  by  public  opinion  to  use  their  capital  and  their 
skill  in  ways  which  will  elevate  and  not  degrade  the 
ideals  of  the  people  for  whom  they  work. 

No  great  or  sudden  revolution  can  be  expected,  but 
a  strong  pressure  can  be  exerted  if  intelligent  persons 
will  give  time  and  thought  to  the  study  of  these 
things. 

Protection  by  clothing  from  the  rigors  of  climate  is 
a  distinct  advance,  as  it  enables  more  energy  to  be 
used  for  other  purposes;  but  excess  of  clothing  leads 
to  tenderness  of  skin  and  delicacy  of  appetite,  which 
ill  prepare  the  individual  to  surmount  the  obstacles 
nature  has  interposed. 

Clothing  in  excess  of  physical  needs  must  meet 
sesthetical  needs  which  are  as  real;  when  a  garment 
does  neither,  but  is  a  source  of  discomfort  to  the 
wearer  and  displeasure  to  the  observer,  it  may  be  said 
to  have  little  value. 

The  habit  of  balancing  the  various  utilities  of 
clothing  would  save  many  a  weary  hour  of  stitching 
and  shopping. 

This  is  not  a  treatise  on  hygiene,  but  a  discussion 
of  certain  points  in  sanitary  science  which  bear  on 
cost  of  living;  and  in  the  cost  of  clothing  we  must 
include  the  aesthetic  side,  just  as  was  done  in  the  case 
of  house-furnishing  and  of  food.      In  this  there  is  an 


86  THE  COST   OF  LIVING. 

unlimited  range  of  possibility,  and  only  certain  ideals 
rigidly  held  will  save  the  exchequer  from  being 
unduly  depleted  on  this  account. 

Each  family  has  ample  room  for  choice  which 
aesthetic  sense  shall  be  gratified  after  the  hygienic 
essentials  are  satisfied. 

It  may  be  clothes,  it  may  be  food,  it  may  be 
pictures,  it  may  be  furniture,  it  may  be  travel,  but  in 
our  families  it  cannot  be  all  of  them.  When  this 
choice  is  guided  by  principle  and  not  by  fashion  the 
family  will  rest  secure  in  their  reasons  for  a  given 
action,  and  not  be  troubled  by  outside  opinion. 

With  increase  of  knowledge  it  will  be  possible  to 
combine  the  requisite  of  health  and  beauty  in  such  a 
way  as  to  lead  to  economy  of  time  and  money. 

The  proportion  of  the  income  which  is  due  to  this 
part  of  life  may  be  estimated  at  from  five  to  fifteen 
per  cent  for  the  wage-earner  whose  income  is  ten  to 
twelve  dollars  per  week  (six  hundred  dollars).  Thirty 
dollars  will  go  a  long  way  in  providing  raw  material 
for  the  family  if  it  is  made  up  at  home  and  if  a  wise 
selection  is  made  of  durable  materials  of  true  bargain 
or  mark-down  sales.  For  the  clerk  or  teacher  on  a 
salary  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  ten  per  cent  will  keep 
the  family  in  tidy  condition  for  school  and  church 
and  holidays. 

The  most  difficult  case  is  that  of  the  family  who 
are  striving  to  keep  in  society  and  who  must  spend 


CLOTHING  IN    RELATION  TO   IIKALTII.  8/ 

for  gloves,  carriages,  and  the  costly  trifles  which 
make  solely  for  appearance  and  the  absence  of  which 
is  not  forgiven.  Unless  the  income  rises  above 
twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  fifteen  per  cent  will  go 
with  the  greatest  rapidity,  and  home-made  clothing 
will  not  pass  muster.  Nothing  is  more  humiliating 
than  to  be  obliged  to  stay  away  from  a  pleasant 
occasion  because  no  suitable  clothes  are  on  hand. 

Here  again  knowledge  pays;  for  if  there  is  an 
aesthetic  touch,  a  personal  atmosphere,  an  ideal,  not  a 
slavish  following  of  fashion,  a  person  may  be  well 
dressed  with  very  small  expense.  Fashion  herself 
will  approve,  and  society  not  shrug  her  shoulders.  It 
is  the  thoughtless  dowdy  she  disapproves,  or  the 
purchased,  ready-made  air.  It  is  not  money  but 
knowledge  and  care  which  tells.  One  color  is  not 
much  more  expensive  than  another,  and  one  style 
does  not  require  much  more  cloth  than  another.  It 
is  the  perfection  of  detail,  the  fit,  the  perfect  work, 
the  care  far  more  than  the  money-cost  which  shows 
taste.  The  decadence  of  the  use  of  the  needle,  the 
lack  of  comprehension  of  what  makes  dress  an 
ornament,  result  in  the  hideous  combinations  seen  on 
our  streets,  and  in  a  waste  of  money  which  might  be 
spent  on  better  things. 

Clothing  from  the  standpoint  of  health  is  shelter, 
protection  from  heat  and  cold,  and  is  a  corollary  to 
food.      In  cold  climates  the  warmer  the  clothing  the 


88  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

less  food  is  required.  A  layer  light  in  weight  spread 
evenly  over  the  body  so  as  to  protect,  not  impede,  so 
loose  in  texture  as  not  to  prevent  free  circulation  of 
air,  soft  enough  not  to  irritate  the  skin  several  layers 
of  different  rather  than  of  the  same  materials,  will 
accomplish  the  purpose. 

These  are  the  essentials  which  the  devotee  of 
hygiene  will  secure  first.  Outside  is  the  layer  which 
we  show  to  the  world  with  an  idea  of  enhancing  our 
attraction  to  others.  We  can  add  pleasure  to  use  by 
appearing  in  harmonious  colors  and  graceful  forms, 
and  we  can  by  the  right  selection  add  to  our  appear- 
ance. This  is  right  and  proper  if,  as  is  the  case  in 
the  architecture  of  the  house,  it  does  not  cripple  the 
more  important  life  of  the  soul. 

But  worse  than  all  else  in  its  effect  on  the  morals 
is  the  same  lack  of  care  in  preservation  of  material 
and  garments  which  is  seen  in  furniture  and  food. 
The  tendency  is  to  use  everything  as  if  this  were  the 
only  time  it  would  be  needed. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE  INTELLECTUAL  AND    EMOTIONAL   LIFE;  SAT- 
ISFACTION OF  OTHER  THAN  MATERIAL  WANTS. 

"  The  education  of  the  near  future  will  focus  upon  the  feel- 
ings, sentiments,  emotions,  and  try  to  do  something  for  the 
heart,  out  of  which  are  the  issues  of  life.  It  is  this  side  of  our 
nature  which  represents  the  human  race." — G.  Stanley  Hall. 

"  It  is  not  what  we  lack  that  makes  us  discontented,  but 
what  others  have."— Horace  Annesley  Vachel. 

The  intellectual  and  emotional  life  includes  the 
exercise  of  those  faculties  which  distinguish  man,  and 
the  cultivation  of  which  is  held  to  advance  what  is 
known  as  civilization. 

The  barbarian  sees  mountain  and  stream,  the  ten- 
der green  of  spring,  the  rich  red  of  autumn,  but  he  is 
not  moved  to  action  by  the  emotions  they  excite. 
The  holiday  crowd  in  a  picture-gallery  sees  the  colors 
and  forms  on  the  canvas,  but  the  meaning  so  clear  to 
the  art-lover  is  not  for  them. 

Great  thoughts  of  great  men  have  power  to  move 
only  those  in  whom  there  is  an  answering  vibration. 

If  the  tendency  to  wider  separation  of  the  extremes 


^  "  OF  THK  '^ 

UNIVERSIT" 


90  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

of  society  is  to  be  checked,  and  a  more  general  diffu- 
sion of  comfort  and  aesthetic  ideals  is  to  be  seen,  the 
advance  must  come  from  that  portion  of  society  which 
we  are  considering,  those  to  whom  the  treasures  of 
past  ages  are  more  valuable  than  present  luxury;  to 
whom  the  possible  ideals  of  the  human  race  are 
dearer  than  probable  wealth  for  their  children. 

When  money  ceases  to  be  the  most  valuable  pos- 
session, its  baleful  power  will  be  gone  and  it  will 
become  only  a  means  of  satisfying  the  needs  of  the 
emotional  and  intellectual  nature,  instead  of  minister- 
ing to  base  passions  and  ignoble  desires. 

The  fixed  determination  to  set  aside  one  quarter 
of  the  income  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  needs  of 
man's  higher  nature,  either  in  the  present  or  in  the 
immediate  future,  would  go  far  toward  cutting  off  the 
arms  of  the  octopus  which  threatens  to  squeeze  the 
life  out  of  the  American  republic. 

If  only  the  college,  the  university,  the  school,  will 
give  the  right  direction  to  this  movement  and  not 
remain  so  hypnotized  by  the  past  as  to  neglect  the 
present  opportunity! 

The  intellectual  and  more  refined  expressions  of 
the  emotional  nature  are  those  most  in  need  of  culti- 
vation in  America  to-day;  a  more  truly  American  art 
and  literature,  more  refined  living,  with  more  thought 
given  to  the  meaning  of  life,  to  the  object  for  which 
all  exertion  should  tend,  more  thought  for  the  manner 


THE   INTELLECTUAL  AND   EMOTIONAL  LIFE.       9I 

[of  accomplishing  a  given  result,  less  for  the  money 
fvalue  of  it. 

For  an  ideal,  any  sacrifice  is  pleasure.  For  an 
lideal,  men  will  strive  and  win  success,  when  otherwise 
they  will  sink  into  inaction.  Ideals,  then,  men  must 
have,  and  in  the  division  of  'the  income  a  place  must 
be  given  to  them  and  a  portion  set  apart  to  minister 
to  that  side  of  human  nature. 

One  great  advantage  of  this  recognition  is  that  the 
young  couple,  whose  interests  we  are  considering 
will  pause,  before  buying  an  ornament,  or  a  picture, 
or  a  piece  of  furniture;  and  will  have  a  chance  for 
decision  as  to  the  permanent  value  of  the  object  and 
its  meaning  to  them.  Anything  purchased  with 
thought  and  care  and  placed  to  meet  a  need  of  the 
person  has  a  value,  even  if  better  taste  and  wider 
knowledge  would  have  discarded  it. 

It  is  the  caterer  to  these  blind  instincts  who  should 
be  the  object  of  our  wrath,  the  man  who,  to  make 
money,  deliberately  manufactures  frail  articles,  flimsy 
imitations,  not  worth  the  carrying  home.  If  some 
wave  of  reform  could  cover  this  class  of  goods  and 
remove  temptation,  an  immediate  improvement  in  the 
condition  of  the  masses  would  be  seen. 

To  those  who  should  know  better,  whose  college 
education  should  have  (alas,  how  seldom  it  has!) 
jtaught  them  to  know  the  best,  we  must  appeal  to 
Lspend    this    part    of    their   income    on    principle,    no 


92  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

matter  what  the  object  may  be:  books,  pictures, 
ornaments,  church  or  charity,  let  it  be  a  conscious 
effort  toward  a  higher  and  a  fuller  lifcy  toward  what 
we  believe  may  be  the  highest  civilization. 

Entire  freedom  of  choice  should  rule  in  this  as  in 
other  departments,  only  let  it  be  choice  and  not  drift. 
Let  it  be  what  we  desire  with  conscious  longing  and 
not  what  we  happen  to  see  in  the  possession  of  others 
that  animates  our  endeavor. 

It  is  the  attitude  of  mind  toward  the  objects  with 
which  we  surround  ourselves,  rather  than  the  objects 
themselves,  which  makes  or  mars  our  welfare.  For 
this  reason,  the  teaching  in  the  public  schools  should 
include  right  ideals  of  life  from  the  material  point  of 
view  and  right  notions  as  to  values.  A  whole  genera- 
tion could  be  elevated  with  one  concerted  effort 
through  this  powerful  agency. 

If  we  read  the  history  of  the  rocks  and  seas  aright, 
each  animal  race  has  risen  to  a  culmination  when  the 
food-supply  and  general  environment  became  such  as 
to  permit  of  it  and  then  has  declined  and  passed 
away. 

The  conditions  under  which  the  human  race  are  at 
present  living  lead  us  to  ask  most  seriously  if  such  is 
to  be  its  fate.  There  is,  however,  one  difference 
between  animals  and  men.  Men  have  a  power  of 
choice,  of  looking  into  the  future,  to  which  reference 
has  so  many  times  been  made.     There  is  a  possibility 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  AND   EMOTIONAL  LIFE.      93 

that  by  this  power  of  conscious  choice,  of  present 
restraint  for  future  good,  man  may  rise  to  a  greater 
height  and  persist  for  a  longer  time. 

**  Evolution,*  therefore,  seems  to  be  under  better 
control  in  regard  to  the  human  race.  No  longer  is 
eywironuient  everything,  it  is  now  dominated  largely 
by  intelligence  and  choice,  and  this  appears  the  only 
hope  that  man  may  escape  the  fate  that  has  so  far 
befallen  each  dominant  species  which  has  left  foot- 
prints on  the  sands  of  time.  .  .  .  This  faculty  of 
choice  may  enable  us  to  resist  the  appetites  and  in- 
clinations which,  although  raising  us  in  the  animal 
scale,  tend  to  bring  us  to  the  brink  from  which  we 
shall  fall." 

The  feeling  of  oneness,  the  altruistic  movement  so 
evident  all  over  the  English-speaking  world,  is  evi- 
dence of  the  check  upon  the  selfishness  of  individual 
freedom  and  that  the  time  has  come  for  a  larger  race 
development.  Therefore  this  portion  of  the  income 
must  have  a  larger  share  in  the  twentieth  century 
than  in  the  nineteenth. 

It  is  true  that  the  same  element  of  conscious  choice 
lies  in  all  the  other  directions  of  expenditure;  never- 
theless this  division  is  made  for  the  purpose  of  em- 
phasizing and  calling  attention  to  the  importance  of 
recognizing  it.  Certain  it  is  that  selfish  gratification 
brings  its  own  punishment  even  if  it  is  not  immediate. 
*  "  Evolution  and  Effort,"  by  Edmond  Kelly,  pp.  270-280. 


94  THE  COST  OF  LIVING. 

One  of  the  moral  advantages  of  the  family  life  is  that 
of  suppressing  this  one-sided  development.  The 
freedom  of  the  individual  has  its  bounds  set  by  the 
good  of  the  race. 

Altruistic  instincts,  the  possibility  of  giving  of 
one's  own  to  others,  can  only  be  satisfied  when  the 
income  yields  more  than  enough  for  bare  existence. 

As  in  nutrition  and  all  other  factors  of  living,  there 
is  the  golden  mean  if  we  can  only  find  it.  Saving  for 
no  purpose  is  niggardly;  saving  for  a  possible  future 
and  pinching  in  a  real  present  is  unwise  and  unpro- 
gressive;  but  saving  to  be  independent  of  charity  is 
essential  to  true  manliness  of  character,  and  furnishes 
the  incentive  which  keeps  two  thirds  of  mankind 
alive.  This  saving  may  not  be  in  the  form  of  stocks 
and  bonds  and  a  bank-account.  It  may  be  in  the 
form  of  valuable  works  of  art,  of  which  the  enjoyment 
may  be  taken  as  the  days  fly  by;  of  investment  in 
house  and  furniture,  if  only  that  which  is  truly  valu- 
able is  chosen,  and  not  that  which  is  sham  and  flimsy 
in  construction  or  of  passing  fashion. 

The  best  investment  any  family  can  make  is  in  the 
health  and  education  of  the  children;  in  surrounding 
them  at  the  impressionable  age  with  those  forms  and 
colors  and  objects  which  shall  lead  them  to  choose 
the  best  things  life  has  to  offer,  in  making  possible 
for  them  a  better  life  than  the  parents  have  had. 

At  the  same  time  there  is  danger  that  the  incen- 


THE   INTELLECTUAL  AND   EMOTIONAL   LIFE.       95 

tive  to  effort  will  be  withdrawn;  and  one  clear  fact 
stands  out  through  all  ages  of  organic  evolution — 
that  through  effort  alone  has  progress  been  made. 

The  massing  of  the  population  in  cities  has  made 
possible  the  provision  for  communistic  amusement 
and  recreation  to  an  extent  somewhat  startling  to  the 
moralist.  Each  suburban  trolley-line  has  its  park  or 
lake  with  vaudeville  attractions.  The  things  which 
make  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  aesthetic,  the  sensu- 
ous, the  ethical  education  or  enjoyment  of  the 
masses,  are  now  provided  in  nearly  all  cities  by  muni- 
cipal appropriation  or  private  benefaction.  Parks, 
libraries,  picture-galleries,  museums,  music,  baths, 
have  all  been  added  to  schools,  free  classes,  and 
public  lectures. 

The  difficulty  is  to  arouse  an  appreciation  of  the 
advantages  given,  to  educate  the  taste  of  the  people 
so  that  they  will  use  aright  the  things  provided. 

Judged  by  the  amount  of  money  spent,  the  mass 
of  people  have  far  more  of  what  stands  to  them  for 
comfort  and  the  good  things  of  this  world  than  ever 
before,  but  it  is  questionable  if  '*  health  and  peace  to 
enjoy  them  "  have  correspondingly  increased.  But 
they  take  both  their  ordinary  life  and  their  pleasure 
in  large  groups,  after  the  fashion  of  the  primitive 
communities;  they  follow  the  crowd;  even  when  the 
income  permits  wider  choice,  the  attraction  of  num- 
bers is  not  lost. 


96  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 


**  For  a  large  number  of  men  and  women  who  are 
not  devoid  of  taste  and  who  are  capable  of  serious 
thought,  the  first  necessity  of  life  is  not  to  think,  but 
to  live.  The  pleasure  of  looking  at  a  play  is  one  of 
the  secondary  pleasures;  the  pleasure  oi  going  to  it 
one  of  the  primary.  .  .  .  The  pleasures  on  which 
they  spend  the  most  money  are  not  those  which  they 
think  the  highest,  but  they  are  certainly  the  pleasures 
which  they  practically  feel  to  be  the  most  neces- 
sary. *  *  * 

The  question  confronting  us  is,  shall  the  same  con- 
ditions of  receiving  the  pleasures  of  life  from  the 
hands  of  the  state  be  carried  on  into  the  more  pros- 
perous families,  or  is  there  a  good  and  sufificient 
reason  why  each  family  should  retain  in  its  own  con- 
trol the  needs  of  the  intellectual  life  as  well  as  of  the 
animal  ?  Why  is  it,  indeed,  that  it  is  held  so  essen- 
tial that  the  unintelligent  masses  should  have  certain 
pleasures,  even  though  they  may  not  be  able  to 
provide  them  ?  Is  it  not  that  through  them  they 
may  be  roused  to  greater  exertion,  to  a  desire  for 
more  than  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  state  to  give, 
or  than  it  is  for  the  welfare  of  the  citizen  that  it 
should  give  ? 

What  then  is  the  **  something  "  behind  it  all  ?  Is 
it  not  possession,  individual  ownership,  which  in  all 

*  "  The  Incongruities  of  Expenditure,"  frora  Saturday  Review^ 
in  LittelVs,  June  24,  1899. 


\ 


THE   INTELLECTUAL  AND   EMOTIONAL   LIFE.       97 

races  marks  an  advance — mine  to  do  with  as  I  will  ? 
Mine  if  I  will  work  hard  enough  to  get  it — mine  own 
home,  mine  to  control,  to  experiment  with,  mine  for 
success  or  failure  ?  This  individual  ownership  seems 
to  have  been  the  incentive  which  has  led  to  the 
building  up  of  our  civilization;  are  we  to  throw  it 
away  and  go  back  to  the  communal  life  of  primitive 
peoples  ? 

That  it  is  a  fundamental  race  instinct  is  shown  by 
its  appearance  in  the  second  year  of  every  child's  life. 
It  is  the  dawn  of  the  higher  intelligence  to  be  followed 
by  imagination  as  to  what  may  be  done  with  the 
things  possessed.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  the  family 
income  reaches  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year,  if  not 
before,  the  principle  of  paying  for  pleasure  and  edu 
cation  and  comforts  should  be  made  a  rule  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  because  of  the  value  of  necessary 
cultivation  of  choice,  of  self-denial  in  one  direction, 
of  gratification  in  another. 

So  wide  is  the  range  that  there  is  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  the  cultivation  of  all  the  faculties  possessed 
by  man. 

Health  of  mind  depends  upon  conscious  effort  just 
as  truly  as  health  of  body.  Children  should  be 
trained  early  in  this  direction,  and  in  their  purchases 
be  made  to  feel  that  objects  contribute  to  the  fund 
of  mental  enjoyment. 

Life-insurance  and  savings  may  well  come  in  this 


98  THE   COST  OF   LIVING. 

portion  of  the  income,  since  they  are  the  means  of 
that  sense  of  independence  which  the  race  has  been 
striving  for;  only  let  not  the  mania  for  saving  go  so 
far  as  to  cripple  the  present  life;  let  that  fund  grow 
from  the  unexpected  surplus.  A  nest-egg  should  be 
always  retained  if  a  sense  of  security  and  that  peace 
of  mind  which  John  Locke  was  thinking  of  is  to  be 
continued. 

The  spirit  of  helpfulness  toward  a  less  fortunate 
neighbor  belongs  in  this  class  and  has  existed  in 
various  forms,  religious,  charitable,  and  just  simple 
help  which  one  poor  family  gives  to  another.  This 
spirit  of  true  altruism  exists  far  more  than  one  who 
has  not  been  brought  into  contact  with  it  would 
believe. 

A  family  with  troubles  enough  of  its  own  will  help 
a  friend  to  the  extent  of  its  last  dollar.  I  am  more 
often  called  upon  to  advance  money  to  my  erriployes 
to  help  some  other  person  in  distress  than  for  their 
own  needs.  Nor  do  I  grudge  the  bicycle  to  the  boy 
who  had  much  better  walk,  according  to  my  notion ; 
nor  even  the  piano  to  the  girl  who  should  be  doing 
housework.  It  is  all  a  part  of  the  evolution  of  a  love 
of  the  beautiful  and  the  pleasing,  which  can  be  rightly 
cultivated  under  wise  direction. 

I  do  feel,  however,  that  those  who  have  learned  to 
be  wise  owe  it  to  their  less  fortunate  neighbors  to 
give  them  the  means  of  education,  which  can  best  be 


THE   INTELLECTUAL  AND   EMOTIONAL  LIFE.      99 

done  in  the  public  schools.  These  buildings  should 
be  models  in  form,  in  color  of  walls,  in  decoration,  in 
pictures  and  casts,  and  copies  of  these  should  be 
made  available  for  the  homes  to  which  the  children 

go- 
Above    all,    the    beauty   of    cleanliness,    the    most 
costly  of  all  beauty,  should  be  exemplified  in  school- 
houses,  and  the  means  for  attaining  it  fully  shown. 

Each  householder  has  a  duty  in  this  respect  also 
to  the  employ^  under  his  roof.  Space  and  oppor- 
tunity should  be  given  and  requirements  made  which 
can  be  carried  out  in  the  humbler  households  which 
they  will  eventually  form.  Only  no  special  method 
of  personal  gratification  must  be  forced ;  allow  them 
to  choose,  but  guide  the  choice.  The  school  is, 
however,  the  agent  of  the  first  consequence  in  exert- 
ing a  profound  influence  upon  the  homes  of  the  next 
generation. 


CHAPTER    IX. 
THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD. 

"  It  is  the  present  duty  of  the  economist  to  magnify  the  office 
of  the  wealth-expender,  to  accompany  her  to  the  very  threshold 
of  the  home,  that  he  may  point  out  with  untiring  vigilance  its 
woful  defects,  its  emptiness  caused  not  so  much  by  lack  of  in- 
come as  by  lack  of  knowledge  of  how  to  spend  it  wisely." — 
Edward  Devine. 

"A  woman  has  courage  in  great  things  and  fails  in  small 
crises." — Katherine  De  Forest. 

"The  greatest  of  all  obstacles  to  social  progress  is  lack  of 
directive  intelligence,  of  skill  in  management.  " —  Lucy  M. 
Salmon. 

"Education  is  no  doubt  a  process  both  long  and  toilsome  • 
but  it  is  withal  a  hopeful  process  and  forms  the  basis  of  mod- 
ern democracy." — A.  F.  Weber. 

The  great  industrial  and  economic  questions  of  the 
twentieth  century  centre  about  household  manage- 
ment, and  the  expenditure  of  half  the  income  is  a 
vast  sum  to  be  in  the  hands  of  any  one  class  of  per- 
sons. Just  as  soon  as  the  home  is  raised  to  its  proper 
position  and  is  recognized  as  a  business,  its  director 
■will  be  required  to  have  knowledge  and  skill  in  some 
measure  commensurate  with  the  interests  at  stake. 


r 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  .T^E  HXXUSE^iQLlX:  :  Ypl 


The  higher  purposes  of  home  life  must  come  into 
sight  and  be  the  dominating  factors  unless  the  present 
civilization  is  to  pass  away  and  to  give  place  to  a  very 
different  order  of  things. 

Certain  it  is  that  if  the  full  effect  of  the  present 
lines  of  human  development  is  to  be  seen  the  wave 
of  progress  must  lift  the  household  out  of  the  slough 
of  despond  into  which  it  has  sunk,  and  put  it  upon  a 
level  with  the  other  elements  of  progressive  civiliza- 
tion. 

Before  the  ethical  development  can  take  place  a 
material  advance  must  come.  None  of  the  higher 
virtues  can  thrive  in  an  atmosphere  of  so  much 
wrangle,  worry,  and  disorder  as  the  house-roofs  cover 
but  do  not  hide,  any  more  than  fine  physical  bodies 
can  be  produced  by  such  carelessly  prepared  food  and 
such  selfish  indulgence  of  momentary  impulses  as  are 
seen  at  most  tables. 

The  maintenance  of  the  household  demands  money 
for  rent,  food,  and  clothes,  time  and  intelligence  for 
the  decision  of  how  that  money  shall  be  spent  and  in 
what  form  the  goods  shall  be  presented  and  a  spirit 
of  unity  and  helpfulness  in  all  directions  to  make  the 
whole  successful. 

If  there  is  a  common  aim  in  the  life  of  the  group, 
one  sufficiently  strong  to  bind  them  together,  the 
small  self-denials  necessary  will  not  be  irksome. 
Each  will  do  his  part  toward  the  attainment  of  this 


I02,      r/S>2*    *>  •n!HE  COST  OF  LIVING. 


I 


common  end  and  not  try  to  make  as  much  work  as 
possible  for  the  other  members  or  to  frustrate  their 
endeavors. 

It  is  this  loss  of  unity  of  purpose  which  has  per- 
mitted the  family  to  fall  apart  and  has  caused  the 
collection  of  individuals  under  one  roof  to  assume  the 
character  of  a  boarding-house  in  which  each  member 
feels  at  liberty  to  complain  of  every  other  and  to 
exact  service  of  every  other  without  giving  in  return. 

If  there  is  not  to  be  found  some  ideal  which  will 
again  serve  for  the  binding  cord,  then  we  may  as  well 
take  up  life  in  single  cells  or  in  huge  caravans. 

If  women  are  unwilling  to  acquire  that  knowledge 
of  scientific  and  business  principles  needful  for  the 
organization  of  the  twentieth-century  household,  then 
the  extension  of  the  apartment  house  where  the  men 
do  most  of  the  real  housekeeping  (the  janitor,  the 
choreman,  the  elevator-boy)  is  inevitable,  and  possi- 
bly, when  the  woman  becomes  quite  passive,  engineers 
will  turn  their  attention  from  bridges  to  stairways, 
from  tunnels  to  cellars;  the  chemists  from  patent 
medicines  to  food;  the  architects  will  think  less  of 
mere  outside  ornament  and  more  of  inside  arrange- 
ments for  useful  purposes. 

Then  the  work  of  the  household  will  be  a  knowable 
quantity  and  can  be  planned  for.  The  housewife 
now  says  it  cannot  be  known,  that  it  is  the  emergen- 
cies, the  unexpected,  which  cannot  be  counted  upon, 


^ 


THE   ORGANIZATIOxN    OF   THE   HOUSEHOLD.      IO3 


ut  I  maintain  that  the  unexpected  happens  in  all 
mundane  affairs,  and  that  the  most  substantial  struc- 
ture, the  most  intricate  factory,  takes  it  into  account. 

There  is  no  way  out  except  the  frank  acknowledg- 
ment that  the  present  household  is  for  the  most  part 
run  on  an  antiquated  plan  where  there  is  any  plan. 

The  burning  question  is,  wher€  is  the  Moses  who 
will  lead  us  from  this  wilderness  into  the  promised 
land  where  no  one  shall  slave  all  day  that  others  may 
eat  and  drink,  where  those  who  plan  and  those  who 
execute  shall  at  least  understand  each  other,  and 
where  the  efforts  of  all  shall  bring  health  and  joy 
instead  of  misery  and  death  ? 

Housekeeping  no  longer  means  washing  dishes, 
scrubbing  floors,  making  soap  and  candles;  it  means 
spending  a  given  amount  of  money  for  a  great  variety 
of  ready-prepared  articles  and  so  using  the  commodi- 
ties as  to  produce  the  greatest  satisfaction  and  the 
best  possible  mental,  moral,  and  physical  results. 
The  very  variety  of  choice  is  a  danger  unless  knowl- 
edge comes  with  liberty.  The  ease  with  which 
money  can  be  spent,  and  the  habits  of  living  for 
to-day  which  that  fact  fosters,  have  taken  away  the 
incentive  to  thoughtful  foresight  and  have  blinded 
the  purse-holders  to  the  inevitable  consequences  of 
savage-like  recklessness. 

The  economic  changes  which  took  all  interesting 
occupations  out  of  the  home  came  too  rapidly  for  a 


104  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

readjustment  of  habits;  women  were  freed  too  sud- 
denly and  have  not  yet  recovered  a  proper  balance. 

It  has  been  said,  until  it  seems  not  worth  saying 
again,  that  the  reason  why  the  routine  of  daily  living 
has  become  so  distasteful  is  because  it  consists  of 
clearing  away  debris  with  no  constructive  work;  that 
there  is  nothing  to  show  at  the  end  of  the  day  for  all 
the  labor  expended.  Consider  for  a  moment  the 
work  in  an  ordinary  house.  Some  one  rises  at  half- 
past  five  or  at  six,  builds  a  fire  if  there  is  no  gas-stove, 
and  proceeds  to  ''get  the  breakfast."  Other  mem- 
bers rise  at  various  times;  perhaps  the  parlor  and 
dining-room  are  dusted  and  put  to  rights  before 
breakfast,  which  drags  on  until  nine  o'clock;  then 
dishes  are  washed,  beds  made,  sweeping  and  dusting, 
washing  and  cleaning  and  cooking  until  afternoon ;  at 
best  it  is  eight  or  ten  hours  before  the  house  is 
presentable,  and  then  comes  dinner  or  supper,  as  the 
case  may  be,  and  more  work  for  dining-room  and 
kitchen,  and  what  is  there  to  show  for  it  ?  Only 
healthy,  happy  lives!  Fortunate  indeed  if  that  is 
the  net  result;  but  how  often,  alas,  does  disease  or 
restless  fretfulness  reward  the  workers  ! 

In  the  golden  age  of  household  occupation  the 
serving  maids  as  well  as  the  mistress  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  piles  of  snowy  linen  and  wool  or  stores  of 
yarn  and  candles  attest  their  industry,  besides  the 
mere  food  and  cleanliness.     The  pleasure  of  seeing 


THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD.      I05 

the  woik  of  their  hands  was  added  to  the  pleasure 
of  action.  As  the  farmer  has  his  barn  of  hay,  the 
manufacturer  his  goods,  his  money  in  the  till,  so  they 
had  tangible  material. 

Not  enough  account  has  been  taken  of  this  differ- 
ence in  result  in  the  discussion  of  the  reasons  why 
housework  is  distasteful  in  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
century;  only  those  who  can  appreciate  the  value  of 
cleanliness  and  who  can  look  upon  a  swept  floor  or  a 
washed  dish  as  a  result  worth  while,  who  can  feel 
that  a  meal  well  digested  is  of  more  value  than  a  reel 
of  yarn,  can  come  to  feel  the  interest  and  delight  of 
the  daily  routine. 

It  is  like  the  case  of  the  child  at  school  who  will 
work  harder  on  that  which  he  is  to  carry  home  to 
show  than  on  something  which  goes  into  the  waste- 
basket.  It  is  only  when  childish  things  are  put  away 
and  men  can  look  toward  the  goal  and  think  abstractly, 
not  considering  to-day's  result,  that  this  element  is 
overcome. 

If  we  could  examine  into  the  lives  of  the  house- 
holders we  know,  I  believe  we  should  find  that  those 
which  have  contented  workers  are  those  in  which  some 
results  remain  of  the  day's  work — fruit  put  up,  aprons 
made,  new  curtains,  etc., — and  in  which  the  spirit  of 
the  mistress  has  made  the  cleaning  of  the  brasses,  the 
washing  of  the  windows  a  fine  action,  a  sort  of 
religion,  a  step  in  the  conquering  of  evil,  for  diftis-   -~-.:^ 


lo6  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

sin.  The  households  where  constant  change  and  dis- 
content rule  are  those  in  which  this  spirit  of  fighting 
an  enemy  and  laying  up  stores  for  the  future  does 
not  exist.  Can  we  spare  the  educational,  nay,  the 
ethical  value  of  work  done  in  the  house  ? 

Not  unless  we  can  place  our  women  in  the  advanced 
class  where  they  may  be  able  to  put  aside  the  merely 
childish  way  of  looking  at  things  and  see  the  end  to 
be  attained  as  a  sufificient  incentive.  That  is  why  we 
plead  for  the  right  education  of  the  housewife;  not 
that  she  shall  dust  her  house,  but  that  she  shall  know 
how  to  infuse  into  the  work  that  interest  and  en- 
thusiasm which  it  has  lost  owing  to  circumstances 
over  which  she  has  no  control.  What  must  be  her 
aim  is  the  health  and  happiness  of  those  in  her  care, 
for  happiness  means  health. 

Dirt  means  disease,  therefore  the  warfare  with  dirt 
is  incessant.  Our  wise  housekeeper  will  make  this 
fight  as  surely  successful  as  possible.  Instead  of 
frankly  accepting  the  situation  and  furnishing  with 
washable  material  and  easily  cleansed  furniture  the 
housewife  in  a  dusty  smoky  city  is  in  the  habit  of 
using  heavy  draperies  and  deeply  carved  wood  as 
freely  as  she  would  if  she  lived  in  a  clean  city.  She 
looks  upon  plush  and  velvet  as  fabrics  and  not  as 
catch-alls  for  dust.  It  is  not  business  economy  to  put 
obstacles  in  the  way  for  the  sake  of  overcoming  them. 

No  thought  of  the  end,  of  clean  wholesome  living 


p 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF   THE   HOUSEHOLD.      I07 


to  dignify  the  work,  no  care  for  the  things  one  has 
used!  A  chair  mended  by  one's  own  hands  has  far 
more  value  than  one  from  the  shop.  The  old  furni- 
ture of  which  we  are  justly  so  fond  bears  the  essence 
of  many  loving  hours  in  its  grain. 

Human  labor,  human  thought  leaves  an  impress  on 
inanimate  things.  Unless  one  can  put  this  loving 
touch  upon  the  house,  and  can  breathe  into  the 
otherwise  dry  bones  this  breath  of  life,  one  should  not 
cross  the  threshold,  but  betake  one's  self  to  a  caravan- 
sary boarding-house  where  one  can  grumble  to  one's 
self  or  to  the  boarding  mistress  who  is  paid  to  hear 
it,  and  not  make  five  or  six  people  suffer  for  one's 
own  ignorance  and  criminal  negligence. 

It  is  not  what  we  do  but  what  we  find  pleasure  in 
doing  that  makes  or  mars  our  days;  hence  if  some  one 
can  devise  a  means  of  giving  to  the  housewife  an 
interest  in  the  daily  ordering  of  her  household,  that 
one  will  confer  a  benefit  upon  humanity.  That  was 
what  Count  Rumford  essayed  one  hundred  years  ago. 

Women  must  take  their  places  as  organizers  and 
superintendents  of  the  economic  consumption  of 
wealth,  for  when  the  household  ceased  to  be  a  manu- 
facturing centre  it  became  a  focus  of  consumption. 
The  factory  acquired  an  economic  organization  and 
employed  not  only  day-laborers  but  highly  paid 
superintendents.  The  house  in  losing  its  industrial 
importance    has    degenerated    into    an     unorganized 


I08  THE  COST   OF   LIVING. 

dependency,  and  its  detailed  care  has  fallen  into 
menial  drudgery. 

The  later  writers  on  economics  are  beginning  to 
call  attention  to  the  misconception  exemplified  by 
this  state  of  things,  and  to  define  the  use  of  money  in 
the  household  as  productive  consumption,  and  to 
show  that  supervision  and  organization  are  as  valuable 
adjuncts  of  labor  and  as  worthy  of  high  esteem  in  this 
as  in  factory  manufacturing. 

Since  the  object  of  all  endeavor  to  get  wealth  is  to 
use  it,  and  the  use  of  the  most  of  it  is  in  connection 
with  the  home  life,  it  is  evident  that  the  household 
and  its  management  is  the  most  important  factor  in 
national  prosperity^ 

It  is  due  to  the  blind  conservatism  of  the  average 
man  that  he  has  left  so  long  the  consideration  of 
what  became  of  the  money  he  worked  so  hard  to 
gain.  Most  of  the  economic  theories  and  statistics 
have  dealt  with  the  incomes  of  the  poor  man  where 
there  was  little  choice,  but  the  real  test  is  with  the 
class  which  corresponds  to  the  plastic  middle  layer, 
the  fermentable  mass  of  humanity,  out  of  which  rises 
the  cream  of  society  or  from  which  sink  the  dregs. 
A  recent  French  writer  is  quoted  by  Bullock  as  stat- 
ing that  **  The  human  race  could  increase  its  welfare 
almost  as  much  by  a  better  ordering  of  its  consump- 
tion as  by  an  increased  production  of  wealth,  and  this 
without    any    real    retrenchment    in    consumption." 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   II0USP:H0LD.      IO9 

And  this  "  better  ordering  "  means  the  wise  manage- 
ment of  the  household,  so  that  the  satisfaction  of  the 
human  wants  as  well  as  the  animal  needs  shall  be  as 
complete  as  possible. 

To  obtain  this  result  requires  that  the  superintend- 
ent, the  manager,  shall  be  a  person  with  a  knowledge 
of  the  utilities  of  the  various  substances  used,  with  a 
standard  by  which  to  measure  the  relative  values  of 
the  commodities  to  the  given  family,  and  the  strength 
of  character  to  resist  specious  temptations  to  spend 
for  that  which  is  only  temporarily  gratifying  and  not 
permanently  useful. 

In  no  department  of  human  activity  would  an 
application  of  the  laws  of  economic  utility  be  more 
productive  of  immediate  gain  than  in  the  conduct  of 
the  household. 

That  the  shrewd  business  man  so  long  neglected 
this  most  important  factor  in  social  progress  seems  at 
first  sight  unaccountable,  but  it  has  been  easier  to 
earn  than  to  give  time  and  thought  to  wise  spending 
of  money.  That  he  understands  in  a  measure  what 
is  needed  is  seen  in  the  economical  management  of 
large  hotels  and  of  ocean  steamers,  which  give  a  better 
return  for  the  money  expended  than  does  the  average 
household  of  the  same  class  of  persons  as  those  who 
patronize  them.  The  single  house  seems  to  the 
expert  in  organization  too  small  an  affair  upon  which 
to  expend  his  energies;   for  the  same  effort  he  can 


no  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

supervise  the  comfort  of  one  thousand  persons. 
Hence  the  tendency  to  herd  together  lessens  the  value 
of  the  individual  home,  just  as  the  cheaper  production 
of  the  factory  tended  to  kill  the  home  manufacture. 
Individual  establishments  are  going  the  same  way, 
and  only  one  thing  will  stop  the  march  of  events,  and 
that  is  a  belief  in  the  greater  value  of  the  single 
family  home  in  the  production  of  men  and  women, 
and  with  this  belief  must  come  a  recognition  of  the 
importance  of  the  organization  and  management  of 
the  affairs  of  the  single  household. 

In  any  manufacturing  establishment  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution  far  outweighs  the  cost  of  the 
raw  material ;  the  economy  of  the  great  industrial  com- 
binations is  in  the  administrative  departments,  just  as 
in  the  economy  of  the  large  hotel  over  the  small  one. 

If  the  expenditure  in  any  given  family  is,  for 
example,  five  thousand  dollars  a  year,  fully  half  this 
sum  is  due  in  salary  to  those  who  administer  the  other 
half,  who  keep  the  accounts,  who  study  the  markets, 
who  spend  time  and  strength  in  keeping  informed  as 
to  the  values  and  aesthetics  of  the  articles  purchased, 
and  who  give  time  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  plans 
thus  formed. 

If  the  man  and  woman  share  alike  in  the  work, 
then  twelve  hundred  dollars  apiece  should  be  consid- 
ered a  personal  share  to  use  upon  personal  needs  and 
upon  the  higher  social  and  ethical  claims. 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   HOUSEHOLD.      Ill 

In  the  average  family  where  the  income  is  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars,  and  the  man  gives  no  thought 
whatever  to  the  expenditure  of  the  household,  then 
twelve  hundred  dollars  should  go  to  the  woman  to 
spend  for  these  same  needs  as  she  chooses,  provided 
she  can  satisfy  the  family  with  the  rest,  and  prove  an 
efficient  manager. 

If  this  principle  of  a  responsible  position  were 
recognized  as  a  fundamental  one  in  twentieth-cen- 
tury housekeeping,  we  should  hear  no  more  of  the 
interference  of  women  in  economic  industries:  we 
should  see  instruction  in  household  management 
demanded  in  order  that  success  might  follow,  as  in 
any  other  position;  and  even  if  a  competition  arose 
with  men  who  might  prefer  to  keep  the  management 
in  their  own  hands,  it  would  soon  settle  itself,  for 
most  men  prefer  to  earn  a  thousand  dollars  by  hard 
work  to  attending  to  the  careful  details  required  to 
save  a  hundred  dollars,  while  women  take  kindly 
to  the  regular  systematic  oversight  which  this  home 
economics  demands,  if  once  they  see  the  value  of  it. 

Let  once  the  dictum  go  forth  that  for  every  dollar 
spent  in  the  material  wants  of  the  household  there 
shall  be  a  dollar  put  into  the  hands  of  the  manager  for 
higher  purposes,  and  a  revolution  in  living  would 
result. 

If  my  readers  have  had  the  patience  to  follow  me 
thus  far,  I  am  sure  they  are  asking  who  is  to  have  the 


112  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

knowledge  and  wisdom  and  time  to  carry  out  the 
ideals  and  keep  the  family  up  to  these  standards. 

Who,  indeed,  but  the  woman,  the  mistress  of  the 
home,  the  one  who  chooses  the  household  as  her 
profession,  not  because  she  can  have  no  other,  not 
because  she  can  in  no  other  way  support  herself,  but 
because  she  believes  in  the  home  as  the  means  of 
educating  and  perfecting  the  ideal  human  being,  the 
flower  of  the  race  for  which  we  are  all  existing; 
because  she  believes  that  it  is  worth  while  to  give  her 
energy  and  skill  to  the  service  of  her  country  and 
age. 

The  greatest  disqualification  for  this  position  to-day 
is  woman's  lack  of  knowledge  of  and  respect  for 
science  and  the  laws  of  nature. 

Let  her  once  acquire  these  and  she  will  come  into 
her  kingdom.  Let  her  once  gain  perfect  control  of 
her  machinery,  feel  it  yield  under  her  hand,  know 
her  power,  and  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  domestic 
difficulties  so  great  as  to  cause  hundreds  of  house- 
wives to  turn  their  backs  on  home  life  and  retreat  into 
hotels  and  apartment  houses. 

The  organizing  ability  which  has  won  such  signal 
success  in  the  engineering  world  cannot  all  be  con- 
fined to  one  sex;  it  has  been  developed  by  education, 
by  contact  with  the  world.  Give  women  a  chance 
to  spend  as  wisely  and  economically  as  men  have 
learned  to  manufacture  and  produce. 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   HOUSEHOLD.       II3 

Give  her  an  education  in  the  laws  which  govern  the 
processes  of  daily  life,  in  chemistry,  in  physics,  in 
biology,  in  mechanics,  and  then  develop  her  taste  in 
art  and  music  as  well  as  in  literature.  Teach  the 
girls  in  school  the  principles  of  form  and  color  and 
certain  elementary  economics  of  expenditure. 

The  present  education  of  woman  is  not  tending  to 
fit  her  for  this  higher  office  of  spending  wisely  the 
money  earned  by  herself  or  any  one  else;  dense 
ignorance  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  sanitary 
science  prevails  even  among  so-called  educated 
women,  those  who  should  set  an  example. 

That  women  have  minds  capable  of  grasping  busi- 
ness principles  is  proved  by  the  success  of  many  in 
professional  callings;  but  the  majority  have  yet  to 
learn  what  it  means  to  subordinate  the  present  to 
the  future;  they  have  yet  to  submit  to  the  action  of 
law. 

As  Mary  Tillinghast  expresses  it:  ''I  find  that  the 
stumbling-block  to  women  is  their  unwillingness  to 
go  to  the  bottom  of  things.  They  shrink  from  pay- 
ing the  price  of  hard  study." 

The  gradual  displacement  of  women  in  various 
salaried  positions  in  government  and  corporation 
offices  is  a  sure  proof  of  this  failure  on  the  part  of  the 
majority  to  accept  strict  business  principles.  This 
lack  in  character  will  not  be  remedied  until  education 
is  brought  to  bear  and  science  is  made  an  essential 


114  THE   COST  OF  LIVING. 

part  of  every  woman's  training,  so  that  she  may 
acquire  a  respect  for  science  and  for  economic  law. 

Meanwhile  let  her  serve  in  the  home  an  apprentice- 
ship which  will  make  the  further  study  easier  and 
which  will  more  sensibly  advance  the  welfare  of  the 
community  than  any  outside  work  can  do. 

Let  her  not  grasp  for  the  reins  of  business  until  she 
can  master  the  running  of  one  home. 

That  the  household  is  held  by  popular  opinion  to 
be  a  place  of  menial  service  and  petty,  degrading 
duties  and  not  the  centre  of  all  social  impetus,  of  high 
and  lofty  ideals  of  health  and  happiness,  is  proved  by 
the  scant  courtesy  which  home  economics  as  a  branch 
of  woman's  education  receives.  That  the  household 
is  not  run  on  economic  principles  is  acknowledged 
by  the  neglect  of  it  in  the  study  of  economics. 

The  woman's  province  is  degraded  by  her  own 
connivance,  since  knowledge  is  at  her  disposal  and  she 
does  not  avail  herself  of  it.  She  persists,  ostrich- 
like, in  ignoring  the  movements  in  other  departments 
of  social  life.  She  should  make  the  home  an  expres- 
sion of  her  individuality,  but  she  has  none  to  express. 
Neither  will  traditional  education  help  her  to  adapt 
herself  to  others.  Social  training  in  ethical  ideals  a*  d 
the  inculcation  of  a  belief  that  home-making  must  be 
the  woman's  profession  for  which  she  requires  a  power- 
giving  knowledge,  must  become  accepted  factors  in 
the  education  of  every  woman,  rich  or  poor. 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   HOUSEHOLD.      II5 

The  term  **  managing  woman"  has  been  a  re- 
proach rather  than  an  epithet  to  be  sought  for,  but  it 
was  because  the  manner  of  the  person  rather  than 
the  management  was  offensive. 

If  the  house-mother  can  so  manage  the  finances  of 
the  family  as  to  secure  the  safe  rearing  of  a  group  of 
children  with  such  refined  but  strong  characters  as 
will  enable  them  to  become  capable,  forceful  men 
and  women,  why  should  she  not  have  all  praise  ? 

What  can  pay  better  for  the  effort  than  this  manu- 
factory of  brain  and  muscle  power,  the  home  ? 

The  time  has  come  for  a  radical  change  in  methods. 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  no  man  is  justified 
in  giving  over  the  housekeeping  to  a  woman  because 
she  is  a  woman;  that  unless  he  is  satisfied  that  she 
knows  how  to  use  money,  or  that  she  can  learn,  he 
should  keep  the  accounts  and  pay  the  bills  himself. 

As  I  see  the  situation,  the  most  pressing  needs  of 
to-day  are: 

1st.  A  knowledge  of  what  it  is  essential  to  keep 
in  the  home.  Must  bread  be  made  in  the  house  ? 
must  the  laundry  work  be  retained  ? 

2d.  A  knowledge  of  how  much  time  is  required  to 
perform  the  various  services  demanded,  with,  of 
course,  a  certain  allowance  for  the  unexpected.  How 
many  rooms  can  a  chambermaid  put  in  order  in  an 
hour  ?  This  depends  upon  a  comprehension  of  eco- 
nomic use  of  human  power. 


Il6  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

3d.  A  knowledge  of  the  relative  values  of  the 
goods  consumed  in  the  house  and  of  the  services 
demanded  in  causing  this  consumption. 

If  service  must  be  economized,  then  the  trifles  on 
the  bureau,  the  carved  ornaments  on  the  mantel-shelf 
must  be  put  away  in  order  to  save  the  time  of  dust- 
ing. One  course  at  meals  must  be  sacrificed  rather 
than  the  temper  of  the  whole  family  be  tried  past 
endurance  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  make  one  pair  of 
hands  do  the  work  of  two. 

4th.  A  comprehension  of  the  inexorable  laws  of 
power  and  energy  when  the  maid  is  required  to 
answer  the  bell  or  the  telephone  once  in  five  minutes, 
and  go  over  tw^o  flights  of  stairs  to  do  it;  \t  often 
involves  the  same  expenditure  of  energy  as  if  she  were 
required  to  climb  rapidly  a  monument  2400  feet  high. 

There  is  still  too  much  of  the  element  of  slavery  in 
the  work  of  the  house,  a  disregard  for  the  mechanical 
eflficiency  of  the  human  machine. 

I  do  not  in  the  least  blame  young  women  for  going 
into  the  factories,  where  their  work  is  measured  by 
law  and  not  caprice. 

5th.  An  acceptance  of  the  fact  that  woman  cannot 
emancipate  herself  from  nature's  laws,  that  she  must 
inform  herself  in  regard  to  them  and  accept  their 
bondage,  making  for  herself  within  limits  a  world  of 
freedom,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  household  reform. 

I  am  aware  that  some  one  will  say,  '*  But  all  the 


r 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   HOUSEHOLD.       11/ 


poetry  of  life  is  destroyed  by  the  insistence  upon  a 
cut-and-dried  plan,  and  life  will  not  be  worth  living 
if  each  day  and  hour  must  be  accounted  for."  True, 
if  the  plan  is  allowed  to  show  through  its  covering. 
A  skeleton,  unclothed,  is  not  a  thing  of  beauty,  but 
does  not  detract  from  the  grace  and  charm  of  the 
perfect  body  to  which  it  is  essential. 

In  the  same  way  the  skeleton  of  purpose  and  prin- 
ciple must  underlie  and  define  the  well-ordered  and 
truly  delightful  household  life.  Saving  for  its  own 
sake  is  niggardly  and  hardening  to  the  soul.  Saving 
for  a  high  and  noble  purpose  raises  the  art  to  the 
level  of  heroic  endeavor. 

So  much  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  The 
casual  observer  delights  in  the  hectic  bloom  of  the 
young  consumptive,  but  the  physician  sees  beyond 
the  fair  cheek  to  the  deadly  cause  beneath  and  has 
no  joy  in  the  sight.  The  apparent  freedom  from 
care  and  tyranny  of  custom  shown  to  a  chance 
visitor  by  many  a  household  conceals  the  canker  of 
debt  and  disgrace  which  is  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  be 
revealed. 

The  present  disorganized  condition  of  the  house- 
hold is  only  a  phase  which  may  pass  as  quickly  as  it 
has  arisen.  One  generation  has  seen  it  develop, 
another  may  see  it  a  matter  of  history.  Men  have 
been  too  busy  subduing  the  obvious  obstacles  of 
nature  to  look  under  the  surface  of  their  daily  life, 


Il8  THE   COST   OF   LIVING. 

but  the  very  fact  that  the  problem  of  living  is  begin- 
ning to  press  home  will  stimulate  them  to  the  applica- 
tion of  those  scientific  principles  which  have  spanned 
continents,  controlled  rivers,  and  tunnelled  mountains 
to  the  building  of  houses  that  may  be  lived  in  safely 
and  economically.  The  art  which  has  given  fine 
churches  and  museums  will  decorate  and  beautify  the 
homes.  The  outlook  is  full  of  hope  and  not  of 
despair.  The  only  need  is  knowledge  (science)  of 
what  the  demands  are  and  a  determination  to  meet 
them.  The  love  of  conquering  obstacles  has  not 
died  out  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

The  twentieth-century  household  demands  of  its 
managers,  first  of  all,  a  scientific  understanding  of  the 
sanitary  requirements  of  a  human  habitation;  second, 
a  knowledge  of  the  values,  absolute  and  relative,  of 
the  various  articles  which  are  used  in  the  house,  in- 
cluding food;  third,  a  system  of  account-keeping  that 
shall  make  possible  a  close  watch  upon  expenses; 
fourth,  an  ability  to  secure  from  others  the  best  they 
have  to  give,  and  to  maintain  a  high  standard  of 
honest  work. 

If  the  housewife  cannot  and  will  not  apply  herself 
to  the  problem,  let  her  not  stand  longer  in  the  way 
of  progress  as  she  is  surely  doing  to-day. 


\ 


APPENDIX, 


20 


APPENDIX. 


<  Q 
w  w 


H 

o   I 

w 


>^ 

o 
o 

W 


V^         t^        •O  tVj  (Vj 


IT)  N     f^  N  t> 


(VvVO    O-  ioOq    O   CVj  CO         S    "  ■^  t^  S    O  fhOO   Vrj  Tj-  Irs  U-)  ls,\0    l^  i 

'  O^  S   ui        ■♦      00  W  w         M      '  t^     '  CO        m        ro 


CMOQihO-nCMvO 
-^  c>j   in       in       in 
m       c« 


H_((\j  (^o^ino^c^OjO 


§^' 


\(.onoonO  >nt^ot^o  s  in\|.t>. 


iT)  N  ^^ooo  vo  ■<*■  T^ 


r^O  S  o\V/\«  OM  \i-^vo  CM  ^  -o  m 
't^       M      '■*       rn'r^SN        in 


-    CM    rrOo    -1-  \)-  t^  \t-00  Sm         (y)I^S>0>a.NO^lr->«>/-iC7v  ^l-^O 

msN       00       00  H  t>       M        0\Sin>-Sins-<r 


OSOOS    -"J-CMvOOo   mOo    Ot^i 


ifv  m  s   m"^  ^    >oo  (Vvoo  ""■  s   t^r:  ^1   O  S   O  (Vs  t~ts.vO  t>.  N  O  O  O-  -f 


O   O  C\4   m  O    t-^<i 


t^Soogs  -9'*'  ^•'^  f<<^  ^ 


m  ts,  t>«  (Vj  OS  C> 


tvOVrsMS    Ots.rt-fy-,0  u   S    O   2  <>)O^S   P<  CM    mw-vC*  CV^T^CM   mOQ  \0 


SsOSNCMOO         in       t^  ^         ■*       H         CO       M        CO        tos 


>  O  Vv  in  \i.co  t^  O- fv^  O  92  S  00        CM   2*:  S  00  (Vj  Tj- irv -J- ^j.00  (N)  vo  Oq   - 


Oo  OCM\0<i  r^\).in  <v,co  *^St^       cwMOgnCumt^MOsi-.^j.-om 
Sm       M(\|in       in'^cn  ■*       fo       en      O-^       m       cj 


O-  O   ^^  rn-O   in  s   ■*  (Vj  m 


m        N         in     '  r^     ^  I 


ro        fS         m 


c>)   o  ir~,  in  CM    in  Ooo  cv,  t-^       St 
S    in     '  t^CM   o         <N      ^  ■* 


O  C\)    o  >vo 


rq        H        tn 


S  o 


(V^  TO  ON>!j.vc    >  1 


V       o 

Pi    X 


H     S     O     U     ►S     ^ 


«       a       («       c 
o       2       a;      .« 


APPENDIX. 


121 


> 

< 

^ 

"»!• 

SCy,i^(v^<MHCV»S«MS,s 

1 

1 

S:       '^K'^^g^-^^.       -tr'^^  .  .^%^P;^2'^£!,'^  =  -:r"^?5S.    «|; 

!>  1    '^'S~*=^^'^?       "^  ^'^5' .  .^^^  ^^S^'^^'^  i;-^  2  :  ;  .  .  ||. 

1 

•2 

^R^S^S:       ^^'^^  .  .'^vg'^S^?'^  ?^  2"^  5.^^*^  :  :  Iv^ 

5 

00 

^<S>S«<^;8        "^;r'^!;5  .  .'-•S'^^^^'^;;^"J?^S  :  :  .  :    <^ 

1 

O       O       >n              MNo|;^Mft       o       ro;          ^i^rilvo" 

<s^ 

1 

(\J    ■♦  ^  0  fv^oo              S  VO  CM    t--  Ooo  SNSVO (M0-.)«0. 

^       '^ot'^vo  *^  5-       "^"^  ^  «^ct'^°^'^  «;;.::;:.:..:  1  :? 

OO                ^0'^'><^|i-'                SvO^)0Ols."-iC\iM>>0O-.-            .                   .. 

oo                o'o-^               Minf^-^-M....         ....... 

1 

CO 

t^t^'m                          «        -^       en       ^     •    ■     ■     ■     •         ...... 

in 

vO             ir^inrrjMrf^Ch            St^s,f»itN.-*C\iro(Mro 

2 

^       '^^IS^S'^S       ■^'"^^^l^^  :.:.::::::.:.:  :     \^ 

g-       '^cS'^^"'?^       -^'^^  ::;.:::::..:::.::  .     § 

oo 

°o  S'^^'^^       "^"^  \  [  \  :  :  I  \  :  :  I  \  [  I  \  ]  :  \  \  I  ■  \^ 

(S 

V^MK^C^CX,    CJ^ 

-:-:;-;M:-;ii:-;l? 

00 

^J^^'^v?^    ?"    ^ 

--i-;-hl^:;-;:ni 

1 

^ic^j;^'^^  .  : 

•    •    I"'*;*'""'; ^ 

00 

^^^s> 

."^S 

•  '  :  :  i  i  :  :  :  :  ;  :  M  ;  i  i  :  I  i  ; 

t 

u 
i. 
p. 

% 

Jt 

c 
(t 

u 

IS 

c 

1 

E 

'ci 

c 

'.      •    .5      •      :      ■      •     I     * 
•     •     •    .y     I     •     •     •     i     : 

1  i  ;  1  M  1  N  1 

:     a     c     "a       •       •      •      :     «      • 
u     w     o     c      :      •      •      •     S 

122 


APPENDIX. 


hJ 

IS 

< 

b 

X/i 

G 

< 

O 

Cxi 

73 

w 

O 

C 
O 
o 

o 

bfi 

J', 

w 

C 

(^  d 

>% 

M 

l:^  ^ 

<*H 

K 

H  w 

Td 

H 

o 

a 

O 

^  o 

^_ 

X  § 

O 

f^, 

W  <=5 

^ 

-J* 

Q* 

^ 

a    (Xh 

. 

M 

o  o 

t3 

e-^ 

w  w 

rt 

o 
S 

c/)  ^ 

h 

i:^  O 

C 

o 

^ 

O  U 

X  g 

0) 

2h 

O 

< 

SS 

1) 

u 

00 

o 

13 

a 

u 

C 

FU 

O 

D^ 

O 

3 

(i4 

:2; 

S 

oi 

O 

P>H 

^■^^  ^ 


m  3  « 

ort  2 

U  tfi  o. 


Q 


APPENDIX. 


123 


g 


S 


^  o     a 

Ills 


•a  to    ti 
«2  1:    " 

CUCC 


X!t3 

o'-n 


CU  ri  u  C 


^      u      o      Q 

tn  C  c  o  SJ  u  rt 
O^  O  O  ««  o  *-• 


<u 

.  « 

g 

.2>^S 

^ 

h  a  0 

• 

aw  mate 
vacatio 
penses  c 
as  food 

Oi^ 

n 


E   "-^  S  O 


U)   C   4)   u^ 

u  o  c  cr; 
D-a  o  '-'  o 


y 

12' 

2; 

u 

> 

Real  estate 

Stocks  and  bonds 

Savings 

Life  insurance 

Furniture 

Table  and  bed-linen 

Kitchen  utensils,  etc. 

Other  personal  property 

u 

►J 
u 

f 

I 

1 

Athletics 
Theatre 
Concerts 
TraveU 
%  vacation 
expenses 
Clubs  (social) 

0 
0 

Q 
•< 

I-] 

<J 

H 
H 

2 

1 

Schooling  for  children 

Books 

Periodicals 

Daily  papers 

Pictures 

Bric-k-brac 

Instruments,  music  and  lessons 

Lectures 

Societies 

M 

1 

II 

124 


APPENDIX. 


ADDITIONAL    BUDGETS. 


Average  $3000  Income. 

Professor  (Mass.),  2  children.  The  birth 

of   a   third    and   an   accident   to   the 

father      increased     incidentals    and 

lessened  clothing 


Young  instructor  (Mass.),  i  child, 
Average  of  5  families  living  in  apart- 
ments in  New  York 

$2000  AND  LESS  Income. 

3  adults  (Central  N.  Y.) 

2  adults  (Mass.) 

Not  given  (Albany)  


2  adults  (Albany). 


2  adults,  T  child  born  during  the  year 
(Albany) 


. 

hr^ 

. 

en 

C   G 

c 

c 

13 
0 
0 

c 

nj  0, 

0 

(U 

u. 

Pi 

0 

U 

24.78 

20.22 

House 
owned 

19  01 

7.01 

11.92 

23.30 

25.96 

17.10 

16.66 

5.88 

35- 00 

20.00 

8.00 

10.00 

20.00 

20.25 

18.50 

12.00 

7-50 

20.40 

18.00 

12.60 

1J.50 

5.8 

20.00 

,15.00 
House 
owned 

22.00 

10.00 

5-0 

18.00 

14.80 

2 1 .  30 

18.00 

2.1 

*op'g 

exp. 

with 

32 

15.00 

food 

11.00 

12.00 

17.06 


21-75 
31.40 
28.00 


25.80 


As  bearing  on  some  of  the  teachings  of  the  book  it  will  be  noticed  that  the 
proportion  devoted  to  the  higher  life  has  a  tendency  to  decrease  as  the  income 
rises;  that  is,  the  demands  of  social  custom  require  an  undue  expenditure  on 
externals. 


^  OF  THE  '^ 

NIVERSITI? 
«SLCALIFOn!^ 


r 


INDEX. 


PAGHS 

Accounts,  keeping  of 36,  37,  53 

Apartment  house 56,  102 

Attitude  of  mind g2 

toward  food 74 

Budgets,  actual 33,  34 

,  suggested 37 

Choice,  power  of 92,  93,  97,  99 

Clothing 82-88 

Cost  of  existence 3 

living ." 29,  32,  41,  60,  65,  66,  72,  85 

Death-rate 27,70 

Disease 106 

,  resistance  to 22,  82 

Diseases  of  modern  life 67 

Economic  conditions ii,  14,  69,  71 

consumption 108 

Economics 3,  108,  114 

,  household 20,  79,  in 

of  expenditure 113 

Economy  of  combination no 

labor 43,  115 

the  home 2 

time. 2,  28 

125 


126  INDEX. 


PAGES 


Education 6,   13,   14,   15,   19,  23,  38,  42,  69,  89,  91,  94,  98,  99 

100,  106,  112,  113,  114 

Emotional  life. 89.  99 

Engel's  laws 33.  34.  35 

Expenses 28,  30 

,  household 50-64,  69,  100,  loi,  103 

,  readjustment  of 14,  55,  56 

Family,  cost  of lO 

,  purpose  of 6,  8 

,  table 71,  72,  73 

Food 35,  65-81 

,  attitude  of  mind  toward 74 

cost  per  day 77 

tables 81 

,  waste  of 75 

Fuel 50,  52,  63,  64 

Health 20,  25,  68,  97 

Home 6 

,  definition  of 5,  13,  15,  44,  71,  115 

,  economical  management  of 31 

,  estimation  of 12,  23,  71 

life 9,  10,  114 

House,  cost  of 44 

furnishing 47 

,  office  of 6,  47 

rent 39,  45,  48,  54,  61 

,  sanitary  requirements  of 49-54 

Household  expenditure 28,  34,  36,  50,  57,  69 

management 53,  108,  109,  iii,  118 

organization 14,  100 

reform 116 

service 59.  60 

twentieth-century ii3 

Ideals 4,  8,  13,  20,  21,  22,  23,  27,  28,  44,  48,  69,  91,  102,  112 


INDEX.  127 

PACKS 

Ideals,  sanitary 11,  27 

Income,  amount  of 29,  30,  31,  39 

,  division  of 45,  57,  58,  Ci,  86,  90,  100 

Intellectual  life §9-99 

Operating  expenses 49-^4 

Organization  of  the  household 100-118 

Ownership. .  .    - 9^)  97 

Sanitary  conditions 42,  54.  64 

science 16,  25,  27,  58,  81,  85,  113 

Schools 5,  7,8,  13,  84,  90,  92,  97,  99 

Science  for  women 112-1 13 

Standards 5,  ii,  21,  32,  36 

of  living 17,  19,  20,  24.  26,  39,  52,  57,  68 

of  health So 

Wages 58,  59,  61,  75 

Waste 35,  70,  75 


5  ?M 


UNIVERSITY   f 


OR 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

TO— ^>     202  Main  Library 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS  ^   ^^,^, 

RENEWALS  AND  RECHARGES  MAY  BE  MAOE  4  DAYS  PRIOR  TO  DUE  DATE. 
LOAN  PERIODS  ARE  1-MONTH.  3-MONTH3,  AND  1-YEAR. 
RENEWALS;  CALL  (415)  642-3405 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


Fmtfi 


-^1.  )M89 


^ 


MAY  0  5  19 


ci; 


yii.Ai 


MAR'iM9inS£F2il996 


AUIO  DISC 


JWfttn99r 


BECEIVHD 


ABTO  DISC  OCT  1 0  m 


SEP  0  91196 


CIRCULATION  )EPT 


JUN  1  0 1995 


"^^  i  0  2000 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
FORM  NO.  DD6,  60m,  1  /83  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


®s 


n 


.>    *  ■,.'  1  ^' 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


nil     „, 

CD0M1023D2 


\^ 


7P5-      ^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAIylFORNIA  LIBRARY 


